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.
The Department of the Interior today announced up to $328
million in funding opportunities available through President
Biden’s Investing in America agenda, a key pillar of
Bidenomics, to help communities address impacts of climate
change through water recycling, water storage and desalination
projects. The funds come primarily from the Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law’s WaterSMART and Small Storage programs, as
well as through annual appropriations, and the Water
Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act. President
Biden’s Investing in America agenda represents the largest
investment in climate resilience in the nation’s history and is
providing much-needed resources to enhance Western communities’
resilience to drought and climate change, including protecting
the short- and long-term sustainability of the Colorado River
System.
Water is becoming less reliable in some areas along the
Colorado River, and a new survey shows that not everyone is on
the same page when it comes to how to deal with shortages. The
Western Landowners Alliance surveyed over 1,000 people along
the Colorado River basin, including New Mexicans. The results
show a majority of those surveyed were very concerned about new
constraints on their water use. Many in the basin area are
already adjusting their water use practices to better conserve
water, the survey shows. But New Mexicans are split on adopting
additional measures in response to a water shortage.
Gilbert and Salt River Project are teaming up to give local
town businesses up to $6,000 in rebates. Over the next five
years, the town and SRP will allocate up to $75,000 for a grass
removal rebate program. It’s part of the town’s sustainability
efforts for water conservation as levels in the Colorado River
continue to lower and water reductions are debated. At the
start of the year, Susan Pasternack and her neighbors in the
Groves of Gilbert HOA were looking at ways to save water.
That’s when they learn about the rebate programs Gilbert has
for non-residential grass removal.
The Colorado River crosses seven states and Mexico and is 1,450
miles long – the sixth longest in the nation according to river
conservation organization American Rivers. More than a natural
spectacle, the river supplies drinking water for one in 10
Americans and just half of the river water nourishes nearly 90%
of the nation’s winter vegetable crops. But the constant demand
means the river also faces aridification and overconsumption.
Here’s everything you need to know about the river many call
the “lifeline of the Southwest.”
As March rolled into April, Ken Beck was keeping his eye on the
snowdrifts piled on slopes around Vallecito Reservoir in
Colorado’s southwestern mountains. Snow reports showed there
was about 300,000 acre-feet of water in that snow waiting to
flow into the reservoir, he said. … Beck, superintendent of
the Pine River Irrigation District, which manages the reservoir
located northeast of Durango … was in good company:
Reservoir managers around the state saw water levels rise this
year, a boon to downstream users who depend on stored water for
drinking, growing crops, supporting industries and managing
ecosystems. And as the year progressed, precipitation just kept
coming in the form of rain, hail and severe storms.
The Colorado River is in trouble, and farmers and ranchers are
on the front lines of the crisis. A new report surveyed more
than 1,020 irrigators across six of the seven states that use
the river’s water: Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico,
Utah, and Wyoming. About 70% said they are already responding
to water shortages but many identified a trust gap with state
and federal agencies that are trying to incentivize further
water savings. The report, from the Western Landowners Alliance
and the University of Wyoming’s Ruckelshaus Institute, sheds
light on attitudes in an industry that has an outsized role in
the fate of the Colorado River.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced the discovery of an
invasive crayfish species in Lake Granby. The rusty crayfish,
named for reddish spots on its shell, hasn’t been seen in the
state in over a decade. The agency is on high alert because of
Lake Granby’s proximity to the Colorado River, and is now
focused on stopping the crayfish from spreading
further. … Walters said the invaders eat small
fish, insects and fish eggs, which disrupts the aquatic food
web. They can also eat plants on the bottom of the reservoir,
which serve as critical habitat for fish spawning and food for
native wildlife.
Researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture have
created a searchable atlas that compiles regional research and
efforts to deal with water scarcity and drought. The map,
called the Water Adaptation Techniques Atlas, was developed by
the agency’s Southwest and California Climate Hubs and so far
contains 183 case studies from Arizona, California, New Mexico,
Nevada and Utah. … The map offers a range of case studies,
many of them related to agricultural and ranching practices,
crop choice, and irrigation methods. Silber-Coats hopes it can
be a resource for agricultural professionals and advisers, like
cooperative extension workers.
Some states in the arid West are looking to invest more money
in water conservation. Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico
have agreed to re-up a water conservation program designed to
reduce strain on the Colorado River. Those states, which
represent the river’s Upper Basin, will use money from the
Inflation Reduction Act to pay farmers and ranchers to use less
water. The four states are re-implementing the program amid
talks with California, Arizona, Nevada and the federal
government to come up with more permanent water reductions by
2026.
Colorado River managers [last week] decided to continue a water
conservation program designed to protect critical elevations in
the nation’s two largest reservoirs. The Upper Colorado
River Commission decided unanimously to continue the federally
funded System Conservation Program in 2024 — but with a
narrower scope that explores demand management concepts and
supports innovation and local drought resiliency on a
longer-term basis. … The System Conservation Program is
paying water users in the four upper basin states — Colorado,
New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah — to voluntarily cut back with
$125 million from the Inflation Reduction Act. According to
Upper Colorado River Commission officials, nearly $16.1 million
was spent on system conservation in 2023.
The infusion of federal money for infrastructure projects is a
welcome first step toward fixing deep problems with water
systems on tribal lands, but it’s only a first step, an Arizona
official testified Wednesday [Sept. 25]. Brian Bennon, director
of the tribal water department at the Inter Tribal Council of
Arizona, said tribes need to make sure they have funding for
operation and maintenance of the systems to keep them
going … Bennon was joined by Ken Norton, director
of the Hoopa Valley Tribal Environmental Protection Agency, and
Jola WallowingBull, director of the Northern Arapaho Tribal
Engineering Department, to testify on the problems that come
with underfunding of Native water systems.
Damien Lopez, age 4, has symptoms that many people who live
near Southern California’s Salton Sea also have. “His cough
gets very wheezy. I try to control him,” his mother Michelle
Lopez said. … A 2019 University of Southern
California study published in the International
Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that
between 20% and 22% of children in the region have asthma-like
symptoms, a little more than triple the national rate for
asthma, according to numbers from the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. Dr. David Lo, a professor of biomedical
sciences at the University of California, Riverside, led a
university study last year that determined the Salton Sea
itself is responsible for the high incidence of asthma for
those who live near it.
It’s been 20 years since the largest water agencies in Southern
California agreed on a historic deal: San Diego would buy water
from Imperial Valley farmers. More importantly, though, the
deal outlined exactly how much water these agencies could claim
from the Colorado River and reduced the amount of water
California took from the river. It quantified the
water (why it’s called the Quantification Settlement Agreement)
and put a price on water rights for the first
time. … Voice of San Diego and CalMatters will be
gathering top water officials from Southern California, Nevada
and Arizona to discuss the past (the historic 2003 settlement)
and the future (the needed deal for the Colorado River)
at 2023 Politifest, Oct. 7 at University of San
Diego.
Despite a megadrought, states in the West have been able to
avoid drastic cuts to their allocations of Colorado River water
this year not only because of surprising storms but also thanks
to generous financial incentives from all levels of government
that have encouraged people to conserve. The temporary Colorado
River water-sharing agreement that Arizona, California and
Nevada announced in May depends on an injection of $1.2 billion
from the federal government. Some of the 30 tribal nations in
the river basin also are getting federal dollars. The Gila
River Indian Community, for example, will receive $233 million
from the feds over the next three years, mostly to conserve
water. Fueled by the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law, the feds will spend a total of $15.4
billion for drought resiliency programs …
Colorado Parks and Wildlife found an invasive species in Lake
Granby. Multiple rusty crayfish were found at Lake Granby
during routine aquatic sampling on August 17th. According to
CPW, rusty crayfish have been found west of the continental
divide before, but this is the first time they have been found
in the Upper Colorado River Basin. Crayfish are not native west
of the Continental Divide. Lake Granby feeds into the Colorado
River and having the invasive crayfish in there can pose a
threat to the river’s ecosystem.
I’ve emerged from my cozy book writing cave (The new book’s
going well, thanks for asking!) to some stunningly optimistic
Lower Colorado River Basin water use data. Forecast use in
2023 (based on the Sept. 18 USBR forecast model) has
dropped below 6 million acre feet, currently just 79 percent of
the total baseline Lower Basin allocation of 7.5 million acre
feet. Californians are on track for their lowest take on the
river since 1949, according to my crazy stitched-together
dataset (USBR decree accounting reports plus pre-1964 numbers
assembled some time ago by some folks at MWD). Arizona and
Nevada’s use is the lowest its been since 1992. Relative
to their baseline allocations, Arizona (at 69 percent) and
Nevada (at 65 percent) are still doing the heaviest lifting,
but California (at 86 percent) is seriously pitching in too.
With no end in sight for Arizona’s megadrought, many
researchers at Arizona State University are developing
innovations to mitigate the drought’s effects on residents,
agriculture and industry, and promote water resilience and
security. Claire Lauer, a professor of technical communication
in the School of Applied Professional Studies, part of the
College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (CISA) at ASU’s
Polytechnic campus, is applying her knowledge of user
experience, or UX, and Arizona’s water landscape to educate the
public about the intricacies of water usage because “there’s a
lot of misinformation about water out there,” she said.
“Educating the public on water management will help communities
make informed decisions, which can have a huge effect on
Arizona’s water policies and conservation efforts.”
The Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah is one of the richest oil
shale deposits in the country. It is estimated to hold more
proven reserves than all of Saudi Arabia. Enefit, an Estonian
company, was the latest in a long line of firms that hoped to
tap it. It’s also the latest to see such plans collapse — but
perhaps not yet for good. The company has lost access to the
water it would need to unearth the petroleum and relinquished a
federal lease that allowed research and exploration on the
land. The two moves, made late last month, appear to signal the
end of Enefit’s plans to mine shale oil in the Uinta
Basin.
The Arizona Water Banking Authority is exploring the
possibility of buying purified wastewater to distribute later –
which would be unprecedented. At the AWBA commission’s meeting
on Sept. 13, new bank manager Rebecca Bernat asked whether she
should look into the possibility of the bank using effluent
water credits. Until 2019, AWBA has only used excess Colorado
River water long-term storage credits. That’s for the Central
Arizona Project water stored in aquifers. Users can get the
water later during a potential shortage by pumping it back out.
Last week, Lake Mead water levels started to even out after
experiencing a steep increase for the last five months, but it
isn’t expected to last for long. After years of drought, Lake
Mead, which is in Nevada and Arizona, reached drastically low
levels last summer, prompting fears that a dead pool—the point
where water levels are too low to flow downstream—would occur
much sooner than originally thought. Water levels started to
recover this year because of above-average precipitation and
snowpack that melted throughout the summer. The lake has since
recovered more than 20 feet, supplemented at times by excessive
rainfall such as that from storm Hilary in August. AccuWeather
meteorologist Alex DaSilva told Newsweek that he doesn’t expect
the lake to rise much more this water year, which ends
September 30.
Las Vegas isn’t just a hot spot for revelers. Thousands of
businesses, particularly from California, have moved to the
region over the past few decades, and the population is booming
alongside other Southwestern cities. All of that growth in a
region plagued by extreme heat, drought, and a dwindling water
supply raises tough questions for city and state officials who
want to spur economic growth without draining the Colorado
River dry. In one example of that challenge, Arizona’s governor
in June halted construction in areas around Phoenix, citing a
lack of groundwater.
Imperial County’s largest farming family has lost again in its
years-long bid to gain control of valuable Colorado River water
allocations associated with its land. The Imperial Irrigation
District on Tuesday won a motion to dismiss a case by Mike
Abatti and several relatives, close friends and business
associates that closely mirrored an ultimately unsuccessful
series of cases they had brought all the way to the U.S.
Supreme Court, which declined to hear their petition in 2021.
U.S. Southern District Court Judge Michael Anello, based in San
Diego, issued the motion to dismiss the new case after hearing
oral arguments from both sides a week ago, based on res
judicata, a legal term meaning that the matter already had been
judged.
Wildlife biologists in Utah are trying to bolster the state’s
population of roundtail chub, a fish endemic to the Colorado
River system. The fish is listed as a sensitive species in Utah
due to habitat loss and competition with invasive species.
About 30 round tailed chub were released recently into the Old
City Park pond in Moab as part of a statewide project to boost
the native fish population. Tyler Arnold, a wildlife biologist
with the Division of Wildlife Resources in Utah, says
roundtail, like many of our native species in the Colorado
River system, have been on the decline.
Leveling off after steady increases since early April, Lake
Mead appears to have reached its peak for the year — more than
22 feet above last year. … Average daily levels computed by
the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation show the surface of Lake Mead at
1,066.32 feet above sea level on Thursday, Sept. 7. Since then,
it has hovered around the same level and come down slightly,
now at 1,066.25 feet as of midday Wednesday.
The 2024 legislative session is likely to see lawmakers trying
to figure out how to protect Colorado wetlands following a
recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that applied a more
stringent test on what should be considered one. A panel of
legislators last month heard pleas from municipal and state
officials to come up with a policy to continue to protect the
state’s wetlands in light of Sackett v. Environmental
Protection Agency, a case that redefined the terms by which a
body of water can get protection under the Environmental
Protection Agency’s “Waters of the United States” rule.
California’s largest lake didn’t even exist 120 years ago, but
now it looms large over questions about how to manage the
Colorado River. Depending on who you ask, the Salton Sea is
either an important wildlife ecosystem or an environmental
disaster that’s ticking like a time bomb — 50% saltier than the
Pacific Ocean and a major source of dust as water recedes. The
Salton Sea Authority, an organization created 30 years ago to
work with the state of California to oversee comprehensive
restoration of the lake, filed an 11-page response to the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation to lend its voice to decisions about the
future of the Colorado River.
A popular federal effort to protect threatened Western fish is
in murky waters as stakeholders await Congressional action on
reauthorization. The Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish
Recovery Program has for 30 years sought to restore four
species that once thrived in the river: the razorback sucker,
Colorado pikeminnow, bonytail and humpback chub. A sister
effort, the San Juan River Basin Recovery Implementation
Program, works to restore the same fish in the Four Corners
region. The species are imperiled by human-wrought habitat
disruption, like dams, and preyed upon and out-competed by
introduced species like rainbow and brown trout.
Community leaders along the Mississippi River worried that dry
southwestern states will someday try to take the river’s water
may soon take their first step toward blocking such a
diversion. Mayors from cities along the river are expected to
vote on whether to support a new compact among the river’s 10
states at this week’s annual meeting of the Mississippi River
Cities and Towns Initiative, according to its executive
director Colin Wellenkamp. Supporters of a compact hope it will
strengthen the region’s collective power around shared goals
like stopping water from leaving the corridor.
Arizona is one of the fastest-growing states in the U.S., with
an economy that offers many opportunities for workers and
businesses. But it faces a daunting challenge: a water crisis
that could seriously constrain its economic growth and
vitality. … Israel’s approach to desalination offers
insights that Arizona would do well to consider.
Setting the course for a Colorado River with less water is an
enormous challenge that’s not likely to satisfy everyone. And
climate change has created a collision course with wildlife.
… The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is an
important player in the battle that’s ahead. A letter submitted
by USFWS to the Bureau of Reclamation has as many questions as
answers. … As agencies weigh in on how to manage the
river in the future, they are asking Reclamation to tell them
precisely the water conditions they might have to deal with in
protecting wildlife. It’s uncharted territory.
Grand Canyon National Park will get more than a quarter-million
dollars to remove invasive species and protect native species
of fish in the Colorado River. The funds come from the
Inflation Reduction Act and are part of a nationwide effort to
restore natural habitats and address climate change impacts.
Lake Powell, a key Colorado River reservoir, dropped to
historically low levels last year due to climate change and
drought. This created viable breeding conditions and easier
passage through Glen Canyon Dam for high-risk invasive species
like smallmouth bass and green sunfish.
Climate solutions like solar panels and electric cars require
lots of minerals – copper, lithium, manganese. The U.S. plans
new mines for these metals across the West. But as NPR’s Julia
Simon reports, the country’s need for these metals can
sometimes collide with the region’s lack of water. … You
do have a miner in there. JULIA SIMON, BYLINE: On a
107-degree morning in the mountains east of Phoenix, a miner in
a hard hat peeps out of the top of an 11-foot-tall bucket.
Tyson Nansel, spokesperson for the Resolution Copper mine, says
the miner’s about to plunge… SIMON: …Where the copper
lies. To process it, the mine will use water – a lot, says
geologist James Wells, much of it from an area east of
Phoenix. JAMES WELLS: The equivalent of a brand-new city
of something like 140,000 people – that’s how much water we’re
talking about.
Dirt roads neatly bisect acres and acres of vibrant green
plants here: short, dense alfalfa plants fed by the waters of
the Colorado River, flowing by as a light brown stream through
miles of narrow concrete ditches. But on a nearby field, farmer
Ronnie Leimgruber is abandoning those ditches, part of a system
that has served farmers well for decades. Instead, he’s
overseeing the installation of new irrigation technology, at a
cost of more than $400,000, and with no guarantee it will be as
dependable as the open concrete channels and gravity-fed
systems that have long watered these lands. … What
Leimgruber is pursuing on his acreage is part business savvy
and part guarding against a drier future. Like many farmers in
this region, he’s figuring out how to keep growing his crops
with less water. Two decades of drought have shrunk the
Colorado River, which feeds farms in the Imperial Valley, an
agricultural oasis fed solely by the 82-mile All-American
Canal, which delivers river water to this arid Southern
California region.
With the nation beginning to transition from fossil fuels to
clean energy like solar and wind power, oil and gas companies
are beginning to plug their wells here. So local leaders are
looking for the next economic development opportunity. And they
may have found their solution—divert more Colorado River water
with a new dam and reservoir that will generate more
hydropower, irrigate more agriculture and store more water for
emergencies. They’re not alone in that
quest. Wyoming ranchers are pushing for a new
dam to be used for irrigation. Colorado has
some diversions already under construction, with more
proposed across the state, to help fuel growth. Across the
states of the Upper Basin of the Colorado River—Wyoming,
Colorado, Utah and New Mexico—new dams are rising and new
reservoirs are filling …
By changing the climate, humans have doubled the magnitude of
drought’s impact on the availability of vegetation for
herbivores, including livestock, to eat in the greater Four
Corners region, according to a study published this summer in
the journal Earth’s Future. This is because increasing air
temperatures and increasing levels of evaporative demand – or
more water being soaked up into the atmosphere – stresses the
grasses and shrubs that livestock and many other herbivores
rely upon. Emily Williams, who is now a postdoctoral scholar at
the Sierra Nevada Research Institute at the University of
California Merced, was the lead author of the study. At the
time, she was a doctoral student at the University of
California Santa Barbara.
Returning home, I feel my roots, strengthened by five
generations before me, dig deep into the land we have all
called home. … Exiting Parley’s Canyon to be truly home for
the first time in years, the valley is unfamiliarly rich and
green with life. Water has returned. … This year, the
runoff filled with a seldom seen sense of rage and power,
fueled by unprecedented snowfall. It sought the freedom of
countless streams meandering through meadows and tumbling
violently down steep granite canyons. As always, much of this
water comes together to form the Weber, Jordan and Bear River.
But, unlike most of the waters west of the continental divide,
it never reaches the Colorado River, let alone the Gulf of
California. -Written by John Dreyfous, a fifth-generation
Utahn.
Federal restrictions are being eased on the Colorado River
starting next year, partly due to a snow-packed winter. Tom
Davis with the Yuma County Water Users’ Associations said water
levels have been looking great and are on the right path across
the state, especially with the recent rainfall around Arizona.
Concertgoers face a small stage at the bow of an open-air boat.
Blue-bodied damselflies hover and land on their hats. As the
sun begins to set and clarinet notes rise, the surrounding
canyon turns from rust to pink to gold. … Campfire smoke
reaches the boat from shrub-lined shores. The campers wave. The
Colorado River is often portrayed as a site of crisis, where
heat and humans throttle nature and demand outstrips supply.
Yet the Moab Music Festival sees the river and its surrounding
landscape as a source of creativity – collaborator and
muse. The late-August “floating concert” is part of a
summer series, the festival’s main annual event held in venues
across town. The current water theme will continue and expand
next year, organizers say. Commissions of works inspired by the
Colorado River will honor and educate about its struggle.
Cities and economic development organizations could start
saying no to incoming businesses seeking tax abatements and
grants if they consume too much water and won’t bring enough
economic benefits to Southern Nevada. The Southern Nevada Water
Authority is nearly finished developing its new “water
investment tool,” which ranks businesses on a scale from one to
five based on how much water they would annually consume. The
Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development and the Las
Vegas Global Economic Alliance partnered with the water
authority to develop the ranking system over the last year and
a half.
The Salton Sea is a highly saline body of water in California.
It was once part of the Gulf of California, but the region
south of the Salton Sea dried up and now it is a large lake. It
is the largest lake in California. The Salton Sea, the largest
lake in the state, was once a thriving body of water, but it
has gone through so much that it is now drying up. A
combination of runoff from nearby farms and communities, as
well as its location, are to blame. Because of this
catastrophe happening to the Salton Sea, it has caught the eye
of various government officials, from local electeds, state
legislators, and federal politicians. But the question of the
hour is, what is in the Salton Sea? And is it safe to
swim?
For years, environmentalists have argued that the Colorado
River should be allowed to flow freely across the Utah-Arizona
border, saying that letting water pass around Glen Canyon Dam —
and draining the giant Lake Powell reservoir — would improve
the shrinking river’s health. Now, as climate change increases
the strains on the river, this controversial proposal is
receiving support from some surprising new allies: influential
farmers in California’s Imperial Valley. In a letter to the
federal Bureau of Reclamation, growers Mike and James Abatti,
who run some of the biggest farming operations in the Imperial
Valley, urged the government to consider sacrificing the
Colorado’s second-largest reservoir and storing the water
farther downstream in Lake Mead — the river’s largest
reservoir.
Water levels at Lake Mohave are expected to drop about 10 feet
in the coming weeks to improve habitat and spawning cycles for
two endangered fish species native to the Colorado River
system. The annual fall drawdown of the reservoir is part of an
ongoing effort by the federal government to restore populations
for the boneytail chub and razorback sucker, the National Park
Service said in a news release. The surface of Lake Mohave will
go from its current elevation of roughly 643 feet above sea
level down to about 633 feet by mid-October. Water levels will
start to tick back up starting in November and return to normal
by mid-January.
The Hualapai Tribe has secured thousands of acre-feet of water
a year with an act signed by President Joe Biden in 2022.
Hualapai tribe members celebrated Wednesday, at Grand Canyon
West, decades’ worth of work to get federally protected water
rights for their tribe. President Biden signed the Hualapai
Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act last year, which was
introduced by Arizona’s Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Sen. Mark
Kelly. The settlement allocates a little over one billion
gallons of water per year to the tribe. … They now need more
money to help build a pipeline to get the water from their 108
acres of the Colorado River to where the tribe needs it. This
will not only help families but also help the tribe grow
economically.
Nevada and the other Colorado River basin states are laying out
their goals for the future of the river that supplies water to
some 40 million Americans in the Southwest. States, cities,
farmers, tribes, environmental groups and more submitted
comments this month to the Bureau of Reclamation as part of the
lengthy process for rewriting the rules that govern how the
river and its major dams and reservoirs will be managed in the
coming decades. The ideas run the gamut: from California
farmers with the oldest and most senior rights calling for the
new rules to follow the longstanding priority system, to calls
for the federal government to evaluate retrofitting — or even
decommissioning — Glen Canyon Dam at Lake Powell in order to
protect water levels at Lake Mead.
Cassie Cerise lives on her family’s ranch on Missouri Heights,
a mesa above Carbondale named for the home state of some of the
area’s earliest settlers. Like her parents and grandparents,
she runs cattle and irrigates hay and alfalfa fields — some by
sprinklers, others by flood — with water from Cattle Creek. But
this season, Cerise and her husband, Tim Fenton, decided to let
about 73 acres go dry and get paid for the water they aren’t
using as part of the federally funded System Conservation
Program, which is aimed at addressing the crisis on the
Colorado River. According to Cerise’s contract with the Upper
Colorado River Commission, which oversees the program, not
watering her fields this season will save about 83 acre-feet of
water.
The U.S. Geological Survey today announced an investment of
$1.5 million to improve urban waterways with science-based
projects, which local partners will match with nearly $1.5
million in additional funds as part of the Urban Waters Federal
Partnership. … The 11 new projects funded by the USGS
and partners in fiscal year 2023 represent a total investment
of nearly $3 million. As part of these projects, the USGS
and partners will: … Monitor sediment transport in
the Los Angeles River in Los Angeles, California. Study
water quality to support the Rio Salado Project in Phoenix,
Arizona. The project’s goal is to protect, restore and
revitalize the Salt and Middle Gila River
watersheds. Study groundwater and characterize surface
waters to support restoration of native vegetation on the Lower
Gila River in Phoenix, Arizona.
On an unseasonably hot July day, Jerrod Bowman peers into the
water flowing through a box-like passage for endangered fishes,
checking their route is clear. Bowman works as a fish biologist
for the Navajo Nation, based west of Farmington, where the San
Juan River borders the reservation. A small dam here forms a
barrier to the seasonal migration of two rare fish species, the
razorback sucker and the Colorado pikeminnow. On the south side
of the river a narrow, rocky channel leading to a concrete
bypass serves as a passage around the dam. “I’m just trying to
give them the chance to move upstream,” Bowman says.
Historically, Colorado pikeminnows traveled hundreds of miles
through the free-flowing rivers of the Colorado River Basin,
from Wyoming to northern Mexico. Razorback suckers also
migrated seasonally to spawn through a similar range.
There’s a saying used in Washington to describe the woes of
conserving large sums of Colorado River water amid one of the
worst droughts in the history of the Western United States. It
was supposedly coined by the man who oversees Nevada’s largest
water agency. “Here’s the fundamental problem: We have a
19th-century law and 20th-century infrastructure in a
21st-century climate,” says John Entsminger, the general
manager at the Southern Nevada Water Authority. It’s a phrase
he and others began to use throughout negotiations between the
seven states dependent on the Colorado River for its water
before they reached a tentative deal in May to conserve roughly
3 million acre-feet of water through 2026.
National Park Service biologists planned to close off and
poison a slough connected to the Colorado River upstream of the
Grand Canyon to kill young, non-native bass this weekend, the
agency said. It’s the second time that officials have used
rotenone, a fish-killing agent, as an emergency measure to slow
a mushrooming smallmouth bass invasion from Lake Powell that
threatens native humpback chubs that swim the Colorado farther
downstream. This time they’re seeking hundreds of young bass,
instead of the handful first detected in the slough between
Glen Canyon Dam and Lees Ferry last year.
With three-quarters of Arizona’s fresh water supply going to
farmlands, the recent reductions imposed on Colorado River
supply are having a huge impact on agriculture in the state.
“It’s all about stretching that water dollar or that gallon of
water a little bit further.” Paul “Paco” Ollerton is a
third-generation farmer in Casa Grande, who says he’d already
been squeezing every last drop for his fields. “Our yields have
improved dramatically. Irrigation efficiencies have helped
quite a bit.” But it’s still not enough to keep his family
business afloat. The longtime cotton farmer has had to make
adjustments as well, turning to more drought-resistant crops
used for animal feed.
Population growth and climate change are stretching America’s
water supplies to the limit, and tapping new sources is
becoming more difficult each year—in some cases, even
impossible. New Mexico, California, Arizona, and Colorado are
facing the nation’s most significant strains on water supplies.
But across the entire American Southwest, water stress has
become the norm. … Farmers use the vast majority of
water withdrawn from the Colorado River to irrigate
crops—and 70 percent of that is for crops like
alfalfa and hay used to feed cattle. The river also supplies
drinking water to 40 million people in the Southwest,
and in 2022, Lake Mead—which the Colorado feeds—shrank to
its lowest levels since it was filled in the 1930s.
Coal mining depleted areas of a critical aquifer in the Black
Mesa region of the Navajo Nation, but a federal agency didn’t
consider the losses environmentally damaging, researchers
concluded in a new study of the aquifer in northern Arizona.
The researchers detailed what they said were failures by the
federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement to
hold the Peabody mining company responsible for the
environmental effects of coal mining in the Black Mesa area.
The findings of the study, conducted by the Institutes for
Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, didn’t surprise Nicole
Horseherder, executive director of Tó Nizhóní Ání, a group
working to protect Black Mesa water, among other things.
JoAnne Yazzie-Pioche calls the LeChee Chapter of the Navajo
Nation near Page home. She’s also the president of the chapter.
Throughout the years, she’s seen many changes. “I remember when
there was hardly anything here in Page,” she says. “There was
no Highway 98. It was all dirt roads.” There’s even running
water in some parts of LeChee that they get from Page and the
Colorado River. Throughout much of the Navajo Nation, however,
hauling water is still a way of life.
The San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors August
24 voted unanimously to appoint Dan Denham as general manager.
The appointment follows the June retirement of former General
Manager Sandra L. Kerl. Denham has served in several leadership
capacities with the Water Authority for the past 17 years,
including his most recent post as deputy general manager. In
that role, he oversaw the MWD and Colorado River programs,
along with the Engineering, Water Resources, and Operations &
Maintenance departments. Denham also continues to oversee the
implementation of long-term agricultural-to-urban conserved
water transfers that are among the largest in the United
States. As a commissioner on the Quantification Settlement
Agreement Joint Powers Authority, he leads the Water
Authority’s fulfillment of environmental mitigation obligations
and legislative advocacy efforts at the Salton Sea.
California farmers are putting a big target on Glen Canyon Dam,
telling the federal government it’s time to take a serious look
at suggestions to stop using the dam to produce electricity.
Talk of decommissioning the dam has been on the fringe of
criticism of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation management of the
Colorado River, but it could gain momentum as public comment is
released in the coming days. Reclamation asked for input as it
works on the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for managing
the river as the Colorado River Compact — the “Law of the
River” — nears expiration in 2026. More than 21,000 comments
were submitted, and they are expected to be publicly available
in the coming days. Conservation groups, government agencies,
businesses and private citizens all weighed in. Public comment
ended on Aug. 15.
The Grand Junction Planning Commission voted 7-0 on Tuesday to
approve a conditional use permit for a sand and gravel pit
located near the Colorado River. The proposed gravel pit would
sit on about 28 acres on C 1/2 Road, in an area zoned for
community services and recreation. The area that is within 100
feet of the river will not be mined, according to a city staff
report. Some of the vegetation on the site has already been
cleared in anticipation of construction, Grand Junction
Principal Planner Kristen Ashbeck said. The site will be mined
over 10 years, Ashbeck said, with operations focusing on a
small area at a time.
A panel of state lawmakers who lead in the water and
agriculture space said any water conservation program Colorado
conceives of shouldn’t go into place until after California and
Arizona first take action. The bipartisan panel spoke
Wednesday at Colorado Water Congress about the water policies
passed in the last legislative session, and where they see
Colorado water policy headed in the next year.
When Perry Cabot looks at his 12-acre cornfield northeast of
Fruita, he sees much more than a flat field among many other
flat fields baking under a cloudless sky. He sees a
bountiful reserve of data and a way to fine-tune crop
production in the drought-challenged Colorado River Basin using
a new tool: artificial intelligence. … Cabot and his
research partners think AI has a place in agriculture, where
the field of precision agriculture is already harnessing new
technologies to boost ag practices. … The basin provides
water to millions of people. But its supply is dwindling, and
water users are struggling to curb overuse in face of prolonged
drought and climate change. More efficient water
technology would change how farmers operate their
businesses…
Fears, concerns and legal challenges over a proposed oil train
route along the Colorado River were finally addressed in
federal court last week. Until then, plans for the Uinta Basin
Railway project, which would ferry vast amounts of crude oil
from northeast Utah eastward alongside the Colorado River,
sailed through federal agencies tasked with approving large
transportation projects. But then the U.S. Court of Appeals in
Washington, D.C., successfully challenged the project’s
environmental impact assessments, siding with the railway’s
opponents and striking a blow against what would have been the
largest petroleum corridor in the United States.
Colorado River Basin states don’t agree on very much when it
comes to the future operations of the basin’s largest water
savings banks. One thing they do agree on: The current rules
aren’t working. The seven states with land in the Colorado
River Basin and other stakeholders submitted comment letters
Aug. 15 to the federal government for consideration as part of
ongoing discussions over future operations at Lake Mead and
Lake Powell, which together comprise 92% of the basin’s entire
storage capacity. The federal long-term planning process
launched in June, a year after a storage crisis left water
users reeling. From 2000 to 2022, Mead and Powell dropped from
nearly full to less than 32% capacity, as of March 20. Water
experts attribute the crisis to prolonged drought, an
increasingly warm climate and overuse.
July was the hottest month in modern times. Now, August is
shaping up to be a month of extremes. In the United States
alone, a tropical storm swept across the Southwest, another
struck Texas, Maui burned, and a blistering heat dome sat atop
the middle of the country. In India, torrential rains triggered
deadly landslides, Morocco and Japan hit new heat records, and
southern Europe braced for another scorching heat wave. Those
extremes have also brought high-stakes tests for public
officials: Where public alerts and education worked, death and
destruction were minimized. Where they didn’t, the results were
catastrophic. Maui has so far recorded more than 100 deaths
from the blaze that started Aug. 8, and that number is
projected to rise.
Strange times create strange bedfellows, as long-term water
supply for farms and cities in the Lower Basin aligns with the
best environmental alternative. The best solution for
California, Arizona, and Nevada to achieve water supply
security is to have the Colorado River bypass Glen Canyon Dam,
drain Lake Powell’s water into Lake Mead, and let the Colorado
River flow freely through Grand Canyon. As the comments are
made public in the Post-2026 Colorado River Scoping EIS
(Environmental Impact Statement) process, one thing is for
certain: an alternative examining bypassing water around or
through Glen Canyon Dam must be developed by the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation. The usual suspects — mostly environmental groups —
are calling for either completely decommissioning Glen Canyon
Dam or bypassing the Dam to support the “Fill Mead First”
alternative. -Written by Gary Wockner, a scientist and conservationist
based in Colorado.
The National Park Service will renew efforts to rid an area of
the Colorado River in northern Arizona of invasive fish by
killing them with a chemical treatment, the agency said Friday.
A substance lethal to fish but approved by federal
environmental regulators called rotenone will be disseminated
starting Aug. 26. It’s the latest tactic in an ongoing struggle
to keep non-native smallmouth bass and green sunfish at bay
below the Glen Canyon Dam and to protect a threatened native
fish, the humpback chub. The treatment will require a weekend
closure of the Colorado River slough, a cobble bar area
surrounding the backwater where the smallmouth bass were found
and a short stretch up and downstream. Chemical substances were
also utilized last year.
Phoenix officials said this week the city will remain in a
stage 1 water alert even though the United States Bureau of
Reclamation announced a return to a tier 1 shortage on the
Colorado River in 2024 as a result of a wet winter that
elevated levels at lakes Powell and Mead. “While this
favorable winter provides temporary relief to the Colorado
River system, Phoenix, which receives 40% of its water from the
river, is asking residents to continue conserving water due to
the unpredictability of the river, prolonged drought and
climate change,” city officials said in a release. Under the
city’s drought management plan, a stage 1 water alert is
declared when an insufficient supply of water appears likely
due to water system or supply limitations, triggering an
intensive public education and information program.
The Colorado River is healthier and Lake Mead is rising. That
news is welcome but brings little joy in San Diego’s water
world at the moment. A lawsuit between agencies has been
authorized. Legislation that could block two small
districts from getting cheaper water elsewhere hit a bump in
the road in Sacramento. And a controversial hire by a
water district that supplies San Diego County with water is
being eyed warily by some officials. First, the good news.
The massive snowpack from the winter storms has nourished the
ailing Colorado River, a major source of water for San Diego
and much of the Southwest. -Written by columnist Michael Smolens.
The states of the Lower Colorado
River Basin have traditionally played an oversized role in
tapping the lifeline that supplies 40 million people in the West.
California, Nevada and Arizona were quicker to build major canals
and dams and negotiated a landmark deal that requires the Upper
Basin to send predictable flows through the Grand Canyon, even
during dry years.
But with the federal government threatening unprecedented water
cuts amid decades of drought and declining reservoirs, the Upper
Basin states of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico are
muscling up to protect their shares of an overallocated river
whose average flows in the Upper Basin have already dropped
20 percent over the last century.
They have formed new agencies to better monitor their interests,
moved influential Colorado River veterans into top negotiating
posts and improved their relationships with Native American
tribes that also hold substantial claims to the river.
This special Foundation water tour journeyed along the Eastern Sierra from the Truckee River to Mono Lake, through the Owens Valley and into the Mojave Desert to explore a major source of water for Southern California, this year’s snowpack and challenges for towns, farms and the environment.
When the Colorado River Compact was
signed 100 years ago, the negotiators for seven Western states
bet that the river they were dividing would have ample water to
meet everyone’s needs – even those not seated around the table.
A century later, it’s clear the water they bet on is not there.
More than two decades of drought, lake evaporation and overuse of
water have nearly drained the river’s two anchor reservoirs, Lake
Powell on the Arizona-Utah border and Lake Mead near Las Vegas.
Climate change is rendering the basin drier, shrinking spring
runoff that’s vital for river flows, farms, tribes and cities
across the basin – and essential for refilling reservoirs.
The states that endorsed the Colorado River Compact in 1922 – and
the tribes and nation of Mexico that were excluded from the table
– are now straining to find, and perhaps more importantly accept,
solutions on a river that may offer just half of the water that
the Compact assumed would be available. And not only are
solutions not coming easily, the relationships essential for
compromise are getting more frayed.
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.”
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.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand 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 some 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
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.
“In the West, when you touch water, you touch
everything.” – Rep. Wayne Aspinall, D-Colorado, chair,
House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, 1959-1973
Rapid population growth and chronic droughts could augur dramatic
changes for communities along the lower Colorado River. In
Arizona, California and Nevada, a robust economy is spurring
communities to find enough water to sustain the steady pace of
growth. Established cities such as Las Vegas and Phoenix continue
their expansion but there is also activity in smaller, rural
areas on Arizona’s northwest fringe where developers envision
hundreds of thousands of new homes in the coming decades.
With interstate discussions of critical Colorado River issues
seemingly headed for stalemate, Secretary of the Interior Gale
Norton stepped in May 2 to defuse, or at least defer, a
potentially divisive debate over water releases from Lake Powell.
With interstate discussions of critical Colorado River issues
seemingly headed for stalemate, Secretary of the Interior Gale
Norton stepped in May 2 to defuse, or at least defer, a
potentially divisive debate over water releases from Lake Powell.
In a letter to governors of the seven Colorado River Basin
states, Norton preserved the status quo of river operations for
five months, giving states and stakeholders a chance to move back
from the edge before positions had hardened on two key issues:
(1) shortage guidelines for the Lower Basin and (2) Upper Basin/
Lower Basin reservoir operations, particularly at Lake Powell.
But Norton served notice that she wants discussions on those two
issues to continue, possibly outside of the annual operation plan
(AOP) consultation process, which at least one observer described
as unwieldy.
Drawn from a special Colorado River stakeholder symposium held in
January 2002 at The Bishop’s Lodge in Santa Fe, New Mexico, this
article provides an overview of several Colorado River issues
that may or may not be resolved through consensus. Some of these
issues include providing water for the Colorado River Delta,
endangered species, dam re-operation and potential future trends
around the basin as they relate to the California 4.4 Plan,
drought and governance.
The situation is true anywhere: when resources are stretched,
tensions rise. In the arid Southwestern United States, this
resource is water and tensions over it have been ever present
since the westward migration in the 18th Century. Nowhere in this
region has the competition for water been fiercer than in the
Colorado River Basin. Whether it is more water for agriculture,
more water for cities, more water for American Indian tribes or
more water for the environment – there is a continuous quest by
parties to obtain additional supplies of this “liquid gold” from
the Colorado River. Sometimes the avenue chosen to acquire this
desert wealth is the court system, as exemplified by the landmark
Arizona v. California dispute that stretched for over 30 years.
Drawn from a special stakeholder symposium held in September 1999
in Keystone, Colorado, this issue explores how we got to where we
are today on the Colorado River; an era in which the traditional
water development of the past has given way to a more
collaborative approach that tries to protect the environment
while stretching available water supplies. Specific topics
addressed include the role of the Interior secretary in the
basin, California’s 4.4 plan, water marketing and future
challenges identified by participants.
Drawn from a special stakeholder symposium held in September 1999
in Keystone, Colorado, this issue explores how we got to where we
are today on the Colorado River; an era in which the traditional
water development of the past has given way to a more
collaborative approach that tries to protect the environment
while stretching available water supplies.
