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.
Groundwater delivers more than half the water flowing in the
Upper Colorado River Basin and needs to be protected from
overuse, a newly published U.S. Geological Survey study says.
Because the Imperial Irrigation District holds the single
largest entitlement to water from the [Colorado] river, its
participation would be vital in any agreement for California to
share in water cutbacks to avert a looming shortage in Lake
Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir. But major hurdles remain
for the district to support a potential deal, and the reasons
begin with the shrinking Salton Sea.
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said the United States and
Mexico are making important progress in talks on a new accord
to share water from the Colorado River, which is badly
overtapped and approaching critical shortage levels.
Just as some of the drought-starved states downstream are
cutting back, officials in Utah say they plan to file on Monday
an official proposal to dip into their rights to the Colorado
River via the Lake Powell Pipeline.
With the Colorado River tapped beyond its limits and the level
of Lake Mead in decline, representatives of California, Arizona
and Nevada say they’ve been making progress in negotiating an
agreement for all three states to share in water cutbacks in
order to stave off a more severe shortage.
Storms brought deep snow to the mountains that feed the vital
Colorado River this winter and spring, but the dried-out
landscape will soak up some of the runoff before it can reach
the river and the 40 million people depending on it for water.
Arizona, California and Nevada negotiators are moving toward a
major agreement triggering cuts in Colorado River water
deliveries to Southern and Central Arizona to avert much more
severe cuts in the future. As state water officials now
envision the agreement, it would also ultimately require
California to cut its use of river water.
As chairman of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, Jeff
Grubbe looks at the supply of water from the Colorado River and
sees an uncertain future, in part due to climate change.
Arizona and California are arguing over Colorado River water
again — this time over whether it should be inscribed in law
that California can’t take Arizona’s share of river water
that’s left in Lake Mead to prop up lake levels.
The Southwest needs a new vision and technologies to shore up
its diminishing water supplies instead of relying on old
“security blankets” like a drought-busting winter that refills
America’s two biggest reservoirs, water experts and users
argued Monday. That’s what’s been happening with water
use in the Colorado River basin.
Beginning in 2015, the Nature Conservancy committed four hay
fields comprising 197 acres at the Carpenter Ranch to a
multi-state pilot project conceived to determine how irrigated
hay fields in the region would respond to being temporarily
left fallow in order to leave more water flowing in the Yampa
River. The stronger summer flows would support habitat and help
to replenish the vast reservoirs of the Southwest that supply
water to cities in Arizona, Nevada and Southern
California.
For the past five years, as the drought drained California’s
water sources and depleted its reservoirs, Southern California
water managers have relied increasingly on the region’s largest
out-of-state water source: the Colorado River.
El Niño has been a washout so far for the Colorado River Basin,
which has led to a lower than normal forecast for the
all-important spring-summer runoff into Lake Powell.
For the past five years, as drought sucked dry California’s
water sources and depleted its reservoirs, Southern California
water managers have turned increasingly to the region’s large
out-of-state water source: the Colorado River.
Environmental protection for the Colorado River — the lifeblood
of the Southwest — is disjointed and too often gets a low
priority in the management of the waterway, independent
researchers said in a new report.
In front of a small audience gathered last week at the Sunbrook
event center in St. George, Tom Butine shared again the
presentation he’s been making to groups throughout Washington
County about the Lake Powell Pipeline. … Simultaneously the
fastest-growing state in the nation and the second-driest, Utah
is in line to face statewide challenges when it comes to
supplying the long-term demand.
Nearly three years after the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla
Indians sued the Coachella Valley’s largest water districts,
the two sides remain just as far apart in a case that
could force changes in how water is managed locally and set a
precedent for similar disputes nationwide.
Snowpack in the mountains that feeds the Colorado River is
slightly above the long-term average this winter — welcome news
in the drought-stricken Southwest.
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.
The Colorado River Basin’s water supply is mainly affected by
wet and dry weather cycles, not changes in human use, according
to a study led by researchers from the University of Texas at
Austin.
For the second time in a decade, the feds are warning that if
water interests in Arizona, California and Nevada can’t find a
fix for the Colorado River’s problems, the interior secretary
will find it for them.
Federal agencies have unveiled an interactive Web display
showing high-water to low-water data and images resulting from
a historic 16-year drought in the Colorado River basin.
This 3-day, 2-night tour traveled along the Lower Colorado River
from Hoover Dam to the Salton Sea and the Coachella Valley. Along
the way, experts discussed challenges related to what is the most
contested, beloved for recreation and meticulously managed rivers
in the nation.
The Colorado spill would have been avoided had the EPA team
checked on water levels inside the inactive Gold King Mine
before digging into its collapsed and leaking entrance, a team
of engineers from Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation concluded in
a 132-page report released Thursday.
On Thursday, a new federal forecast said El Niño is
continuing to strengthen, with experts saying it’s on track to
produce potentially record rainfall. … The forecast for
a wet winter now covers the mountains that feed California’s
most important reservoirs, Shasta Lake and Lake Oroville.
A coalition of scholars across the West is urging the federal
government to partner with the National Academy of Sciences to
study the future of the Colorado River, including if climate
change is leading to reduced stream flow.
In a long-awaited decision, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management
says Cadiz cannot use an existing railroad right-of-way for a
new water pipeline that would carry supplies from the project’s
proposed well field to the Colorado River Aqueduct.
Protracted drought over the last four years and nagging
uncertainty over how Lake Powell will fare in 2016 are
prompting a cash-for-conservation program to test how much
water can be saved in the Colorado River.
Long gone are the luxury boats that drew stars inland from
Hollywood to this accidental sea that first filled with
Colorado River water after a massive 1905 canal
breach. … The Southwest’s worsening water shortage will make
saving the Salton Sea difficult, because any fix requires water
from an over-stressed Colorado River.
The intake was unplugged Wednesday to finish flooding an $817
million tunnel and complete a complicated and perilous “Third
Straw” project to draw drinking water for Las Vegas from a
shrinking Lake Mead.
The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday it will set
up a temporary treatment plant for wastewater flowing from the
Gold King Mine in southwestern Colorado after 3 million gallons
surged out of the mine in August, tainting rivers in three
states.
Water managers in Los Angeles and Las Vegas are poised to adopt
a drought-driven deal to send enough water to serve about
300,000 homes annually from the Lake Mead reservoir to Southern
California.
In 1934, the Metropolitan Water District began construction on
Parker Dam, which was opposed by Arizona. The resulting Lake
Havasu would feed the new Colorado Aqueduct.
Documents released by U.S. officials have revealed that the
Environmental Protection Agency knew of the potential for a
blowout of toxic wastewater from a Colorado mine more than a
year before a government cleanup team accidentally triggered
such a release earlier this month.
The drought is expected to cost the state $2.7 billion in
agriculture losses this year, but farmers in eastern Riverside
County are faring well because of steady supplies from the
Colorado River, according to the authors of a new economic
forecast.
Wet weather in May and June brought good news Monday from
federal water managers keeping close tabs on the Colorado River
water supply for about 40 million residents in seven Southwest
U.S. states.
It will take many years and many millions of dollars simply to
manage and not even remove the toxic wastewater from an
abandoned mine that unleashed a 100-mile-long torrent of heavy
metals into Western rivers and has likely reached Lake Powell,
experts said.
[EPA Regional Administrator Shaun] McGrath said at a
public meeting Sunday that officials had tripled the estimate
of the toxic spill based on data from a U.S. Geological Survey
water gauge downstream.
Water officials insist a pilot program designed to save
Colorado River water and boost Lake Mead and Lake Powell is off
to such a promising start that they are already looking to pour
more money into it.
The St. George metro area measured as the fifth-fastest growing
in the nation according to the latest U.S. Census
estimates … Enter the Lake Powell Pipeline, a 140-mile
conduit to the much larger Colorado River and at the moment
perhaps the most hotly contested project planned along the
river’s entire 1,450 miles.
The state’s largest water supplier plans to buy 12,000 acres of
farmland near Blythe in an effort to secure Colorado River
water for Southern California cities.
Nearly 40 million people in seven states depend on the
[Colorado] river, a population some forecasts say could nearly
double in the next 50 years. … In the decades to come,
federal officials say, significant shortages are likely to
force water-supply cutbacks in parts of the basin, the first in
the more than 90 years that the river has been managed under
the 1922 Colorado River Compact.
Paul Matuska is the closest thing the American West has to a
water cop, and his beat includes Needles, Calif., a beleaguered
desert town midway between Flagstaff, Ariz., and Los Angeles.
… Mr. Matuska, a hydrologist, is one of about a dozen
accountants for the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which
controls water distribution along the lower half of the
Colorado River.
At a time when water levels in Lake Mead were getting so low
that officials prepared for drastic cutbacks, it started
raining. A series of powerful storms pummeled the mountains
that feed the Colorado River, a key source of water for
California, Arizona and Nevada.
San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Curtis E.A. Karnow
found that the MWD had charged San Diego too much for the use
of its aqueduct to bring water from the Colorado River under
San Diego’s deal to buy water from the Imperial Irrigation
District.
Three U.S. water agencies have joined forces with the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation, paying $18 million toward the lining of
a 10-mile stretch of the canal. In exchange, they will be
receiving 124,000 acre-feet of water being stored by Mexico at
Lake Mead.
“Killing the Colorado,” a joint reporting project by ProPublica
and Matter, set out to tell the truth about the American West’s
water crisis. … Four photographers — Christaan Felber, Bryan
Schutmaat, Jake Stangel and Michael Friberg — were enlisted by
photo editors Luise Stauss and Ayanna Quint to document man’s
mistakes and their consequences.
It took $817 million, two starts, more than six years and one
worker’s life to drill a so-called “Third Straw” to make sure
glittery casinos and sprawling suburbs of Las Vegas can keep
getting drinking water from near the bottom of drought-stricken
Lake Mead.
Mired in drought and torched by one of the hottest years ever
measured, the seven states of the Colorado River Basin are
acutely aware of how a desert can bully water supplies. They
are not alone.
The importance of water conservation during this record dry
spell notwithstanding, sound water management turns out to be
about a lot more than just water use. Today on Sea Change
Radio, host Alex Wise speaks with Abrahm Lustgarten of
ProPublica, who is writing a multi-part series exposing
unfortunate policies and practices vis-à-vis our most precious,
life-sustaining resource.
Thanks to unexpected rains in what went down in history as
“Miracle March,” California’s drought eased in 1991. This year,
the same thing has happened on a larger scale along the
Colorado River basin.
A couple of miles outside the town of Page, three 775-foot-tall
caramel-colored smokestacks tower like sentries on the edge of
northern Arizona’s sprawling red sandstone wilderness. At their
base, the Navajo Generating Station, the West’s largest
power-generating facility, thrums ceaselessly, like a beating
heart.
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.)
With water levels in Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir
and a bellwether for water supplies in the Southwest, setting a
new record low every day, the seven states of the Colorado
River Basin are finalizing a pair of novel water conservation
agreements that will keep more water in the shrinking lake.
A vestige of 139-year-old water law pushes ranchers to use as
much water as they possibly can, even during a drought. “Use it
or lose it” clauses, as they are known, are common in state
laws throughout the Colorado River basin and give the farmers,
ranchers and governments holding water rights a powerful
incentive to use more water than they need.
State Route 87, the thin band of pavement that approaches the
mostly shuttered town of Coolidge, Ariz., cuts through some of
the least hospitable land in the country. … Then Route 87
tacks left and the dead landscape springs to life.
The U.S. Drought Monitor said Thursday a series of recent
storms have dropped up to four times the normal weekly rainfall
in some areas of the West. However, three-quarters of the
region remains in a long-term drought.
California’s drought emergency woes have worsened, with a
shortage on the Colorado River next year becoming increasingly
likely. Odds of a shortage rose from 33 percent to 50 percent
from April 1 to May 1, Metropolitan Water District, Southern
California’s largest water wholesaler, said Monday.
With more than 38 million people, a multibillion-dollar
agricultural industry and a complex water system that relies on
multiple sources, including the Colorado River, California’s
problems are of a different magnitude than those Southern
Nevada faced. But the steps taken here offer a road map to
making the most out of every drop of water.
Pat Mulroy, a senior fellow with the Metropolitan Policy
Program at Brookings and a senior fellow for climate adaptation
and environmental policy at UNLV’s Brookings Mountain West,
discusses the water scarcity issues that have developed over
the last few decades and the realistic future of water in the
U.S. … During her tenure at SNWA [Southern Nevada Water
Authority], the region faced a huge crisis when one of the
worst droughts in the history of the Colorado River hit the
region.
The historic four-year drought in California has been grabbing
the headlines lately, but there’s a much bigger problem facing
the West: the now 14-year drought gripping the Colorado River
basin.
Compared to California, things are better in the Colorado River
Basin. However, after 15 years of drought, Lake Powell and Lake
Mead are both below 45 percent full with basinwide snowpack
below 70 percent as of April 1.
Drought-weary Californians can’t expect much encouragement from
mountains elsewhere in the West: Snow that fills the Colorado
River is lagging, too, officials said Friday.
Las Vegas is seeking to quench its growing thirst by draining
billions of gallons of water from under the feet of ranchers
whose cattle help feed the Mormon church’s poor. A legal battle
across 275 miles of treeless ridges and baked salt flats comes
as the western U.S. faces unprecedented droughts linked to
climate change.
St. George anchors Washington County, which has echoed Las
Vegas’ growth boom since before the turn of the 21st century.
… Meanwhile, Utah is using less than 1 million acre-feet a
year from the Colorado River, according to the state.
A federal judge has ruled that the Colorado River Indian Tribes
had legal authority to evict a tenant from a housing
development on the California side of the Colorado River.
Snowpack in the mountain valleys where the Colorado River
originates was only a little below normal on Wednesday, marking
one of the few bright spots in an increasingly grim drought
gripping much of the West.
The Colorado River faces a dual threat from climate change as
rising temperatures increase the demand for irrigation water
and accelerate evaporation at the river’s two largest
reservoirs. So says a new report from the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation …
Persistent drought conditions could trigger mandatory water
rationing measures throughout Southern California for the
second time in six years, officials said Monday.
Leaning against a dilapidated gazebo overlooking a lazy bend in
the Colorado River, Roger French recalled better times in the
nest of mobile homes known as Ranchos Not So Grande.
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.
A spring release of water has reversed a 13-year trend of
decline in plant and wildlife in the Colorado River Delta,
according to findings released by scientists this month.
For 56 days last spring, a unique pulse of water drawn from
Hoover Dam’s Lake Mead coursed into Mexico to the Colorado
River’s parched delta – once an ecological emerald set in the
tawny expanse of the Sonoran Desert.
A binational effort aimed at reviving parched wetlands in the
Colorado River Delta in Mexico through special deliveries of
water has met with initial success, according to a report
released Wednesday. … The water deliveries aimed at restoring
some of the delta’s last remaining wetlands were outlined under
a wide-ranging five-year binational agreement reached in 2012
and known as Minute 319.
With demand increasing across the West, Colorado is drawing up
a strategy to keep some of the trillions of gallons of water
that gushes out of the Rocky Mountains every spring – most of
which flows downstream to drought-stricken California, Arizona,
Nevada and Mexico. … [James] Eklund’s insistence on
Colorado’s water rights drew diplomatic responses from his
colleagues in other states on the eve of a Las Vegas meeting of
water managers.
Facing dwindling water supplies, Western states are struggling
to capture every drop with dam and diversion projects that some
think could erode regional cooperation crucial to managing the
scarce resource. Against that backdrop, eight Western governors
meeting in Las Vegas this weekend will address regional water
issues, and water managers from seven states arrive next week
to work on ways to ensure 40 million people in the parched
Colorado River basin don’t go thirsty.
I have been reporting on Western water issues – specifically
the Colorado River Basin – since 2009. … Typically the debate
is one of bridging the gap between expected demand and a
shortfall in supply.
[Richard] McFarland-Dorworth, a longtime California resident
and rafting guide who now lives in Bali, Indonesia, was one of
seven expert rafters on a 950-mile mission to replicate most of
John Wesley Powell’s 1869 expedition down the Green and
Colorado rivers from Flaming Gorge through Utah and Arizona to
Lake Mead — sans most of the roiling waters of the pre-dam era.
A group of Italian developers is planning three million square
feet of retail construction, plus 2,200 homes, in Tusayan, a
newly incorporated village with a population of just 587 at the
entrance to the park [Grand Canyon], posing what park officials
describe as a major threat to the water supply for the Colorado
River.
My partner DeEdda McLean and I had come to this area west of
Mexican Hat, Utah, to kayak across Lake Powell, a reservoir
formed by the confluence of the San Juan and the Colorado
Rivers and the holding power of Glen Canyon Dam, which lies
just over the border in Arizona. Yet in place of a majestic
reservoir, we saw only the thin ribbon of a reemergent river
channel, which had been inundated for most of the past three
decades by the lake.
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.
The Department of the Interior initiated its third high-flow
release from Glen Canyon Dam today [Nov. 10] under an
innovative science-based experimental protocol. The goal of the
releases is to help restore the environment by creating
flood-like conditions below Glen Canyon Dam, which rebuild
sandbars that are important habitat and recreational resources.
The Bureau of Reclamation has released a report summarizing six
years of testing coatings to control the attachment of quagga
and zebra mussels to water and power facilities. … The
testing was conducted at Parker Dam on the Colorado
River.
Two water districts, the federal government, and the Agua
Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians are laying out their
arguments in a lawsuit over water, focusing on the question of
whether the tribe has rights to groundwater.
Faced with the increasing probability of shortage on the
Colorado River, municipal water providers in Arizona,
California, Nevada and Colorado, and the Bureau of Reclamation
are implementing a landmark Colorado River System Conservation
program. … At a later date, water users in the Upper Basin
will be invited to participate in this unique agreement.
One of the most extreme droughts in California’s history has
been hitting agriculture hard, forcing cutbacks in water
deliveries in parts of the Central Valley and leaving more than
400,000 acres of farmland fallow and dry.
U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and other officials on
Saturday marked the 50th anniversary of power generation by
Glen Canyon Dam, a structure that helped usher in a new era in
the Southwest.
The Bureau of Reclamation will host a live Internet broadcast
of the 50th Anniversary celebration of power production at Glen
Canyon Dam on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014.
Newly elected to your local water board? Or city council? Or
state Legislature? This packet of materials provides you with the
valuable background information you need – and at a special
price!
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.
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.
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.
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 2000 version offers expanded information on groundwater
banking and conjunctive use … Colorado River transfers,
CALFED’s Water Transfer Program 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 Colorado River provides water to more than 35 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 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.
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 most recent version of the Salton Sea was formed in 1905 when
the Colorado River broke
through a series of dikes and flooded the seabed for two years,
creating California’s largest inland body of water. The
Salton Sea, which is saltier than the Pacific Ocean, includes 130
miles of shoreline and is larger than Lake Tahoe.
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 Mexican Delta is located at the
natural terminus of the Colorado River at the Gulf of Mexico,
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 Mexican Delta once covered 9,650 square miles but has shrunk
to less than 1 percent of its original size due to man-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 rivers in the world.
The Colorado falls some 10,000 feet on its way from the Rocky
Mountains to the Gulf of California. From its headwaters
northwest of Denver, 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. Eleven National Park
Service units lie along the Colorado River and its tributaries,
including Canyonlands National Park, Glen Canyon National
Recreation Area, Grand Canyon National Park and Lake Mead
National Recreation Area.
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.
