As adjacent Western states, California and Nevada share similar
issues related to drought and limited water resources. Both
states are participants in the 1922 Colorado River Compact and
the 2003 and 2007 Quantification Settlement Agreements to
allocate Colorado River deliveries. Also, about two-thirds of
Lake Tahoe lies in California and one-third in Nevada, and the
two states have formed a compact to work together on
environmental goals for the lake.
More than 94 percent of the West is in drought this week,
according to the US Drought Monitor, with six states entirely
in drought status: California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and
Montana. Parts of the West saw record-setting rainfall that
brought some slight relief to the region, but most areas remain
dry. Against the backdrop of climate change-fueled drought,
wildfires have charred nearly 6 million acres of vegetation
across the region. Fire experts say that dry and windy
conditions create a prime environment for wildfires to spark
and spread.
Utah’s drought-induced water crisis has softened somewhat after
a string of monsoons, but the state’s water supplies are far
from safe, with reservoirs across the state falling below 40%
full, state officials told lawmakers Tuesday. Only a massive
snowpack this winter can assure adequate supplies going into
next year, and even then, Utah’s water future remains uncertain
in the face of long-term drought and climate change. In
July the entire state was in extreme or exceptional drought and
Utah’s two largest lakes hit their lowest levels ever.
Las Vegas visitors can still snap selfies with the mermaids
swimming among tropical fish in the Silverton Casino’s massive
aquarium and gaze at the colorful dancing water displays of the
iconic Bellagio fountains — for now. But southern Nevada and
much of the American West are struggling to cope with a
worsening drought that has strained municipal water supplies,
agricultural operations and wildlife populations.
Water management in the western United States is rooted in an
adversarial system that is highly sensitive to climate change.
Reforms are needed to ensure water management is efficient,
resilient and equitable moving forward.
-Written by Dylan R. Hedden-Nicely, Associate Professor of
Law and Director, Native American Law Program, University of
Idaho College of Law.
The Colorado River Basin is enduring two decades of drought,
and water shortages are on the horizon. But scientists say this
isn’t the worst-case scenario. The region has undergone longer,
deeper droughts in the past. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny spoke with
paleoclimatologist Matt Lachniet of the University of
Nevada-Las Vegas about how knowing the past can help us plan
for a warmer, drier future.
This whole reservoir system along the Colorado River Basin was
designed to get us through the drought years. Why isn’t it
working? A glimpse into the history of the system, how it was
designed and the impacts of climate change sheds light on why
it was destined to fail — and why it may never recover.
With drought sucking the Western US dry, Google announced new
plans to protect vital water resources. Google guzzles up water
to cool its data centers, three of which are in the
drought-stricken West. To offset its thirst, the company said
that by 2030, it wants to replenish 120 percent of the water it
consumes. … The company has
faced pushback from communities near its data center
in South Carolina and a new one to be built
in Arizona.
For the past two decades, the southwestern United States has
been desiccated by one of the most severe long-term droughts—or
‘megadroughts’—of the last 1,200 years. And now, scientists say
the risk of similar extreme megadroughts and severe single-year
droughts will increase in the future as Earth’s temperature
continues to rise, according to a new study in Earth’s Future
sponsored by CPO’s Modeling, Analysis, Predictions, and
Projections (MAPP) program and led by NASA’s Goddard
Institute for Space Studies (GISS).
Both the Rio Grande and Colorado rivers shrunk in 2021, another
bad water year in a two-decade megadrought brought on by a
warming Western United States. Demands on the rivers —
from growing cities, agriculture, wildlife and international
treaties — are hitting the reality of a reduced supply of water
in both rivers. In August, federal officials declared the
first-ever shortage on the Colorado River lower basin,
triggering a plan to reduce water usage in several states and
Mexico.
As a headwaters state, Colorado has many interstate compacts
that set rules for how the state must share the rivers that
originate within its borders with downstream states. On several
of these rivers, water users have had to modify their water use
to meet compact requirements. That day may be coming for
the Colorado River. A new report explores what Colorado
River water users can learn from experiences with compact
administration on other rivers.
For the first time in history, the federal government has
declared a water shortage on the Colorado River, which serves
as a lifeline to more than 40 million people in western states
like Arizona and California. States that are used to
receiving substantial amounts of water from the river are going
to be receiving considerable cuts in water availability. The
river has served as a source of affordable hydraulic power and
provides water for irrigation systems to countless farms in the
region.
La Niña, the climate event that causes water to be colder than
normal in the eastern Pacific, has now been shown by new
research released Monday to be responsible for simultaneous
megadroughts in the North and South American Southwest over the
past 1,000 years. Megadroughts are extended periods of
drought that last at least 20 years. In a study published in
the journal Nature, researchers found that these megadroughts
occurred simultaneously in the North American and South
American Southwest “regularly” and often during a La Niña
event.
They all remember when the San Luis Valley brimmed with water.
South of San Luis, Ronda Lobato raced the rising floodwaters in
San Francisco Creek every spring to fill sandbags that
protected her grandparents’ farm. North of Center, potato
farmer Sheldon Rockey faced so much spring mud that he had to
learn to extract his stuck tractor. Outside Monte Vista,
Tyler Mitchell needed only a hand shovel on the family farm
near Monte Vista to reach shallow underground flows in the
Valley’s once-abundant water table.
On Aug. 16, the U.S. federal government declared a Colorado
River water shortage for the first time. This unprecedented
action was triggered by the precipitous drop in Lake Mead’s
water level: It’s at 1,067 feet above sea level, or about 35
percent full. …. The economic impacts to the states that tap
water from the Colorado River are significant, with no relief
in sight.
In late spring, Antonia Torres González’ tears rolled freely at
the rare sight before her: the Colorado River flowed again in
what is usually a parched delta. Torres González, a member of
the Cucapá tribe who grew up in the river delta, couldn’t help
but relive memories of childhood romps in the once-lush
waterway in northwestern Mexico. … On May 1, 2021, the river
once again flowed in its delta thanks to an agreement between
the United States and Mexico dubbed Minute 323.
It’s been a wet monsoon season. Sky Harbor has seen 3.35
inches of rain so far, which far surpasses the 2020
“non-soon.” So is the long drought in the Southwest
over? Not by a long shot, experts say.
The front lawn came with the house we moved into a couple years
ago. The patch of Bermudagrass was smaller than an average
putting green and easy to mow. The splash of deep green was
cute as far as that goes, but it was out of place on a street
that had largely made the transition to colored rock and
water-smart landscaping. Beyond the postcard aesthetics, it
made zero sense to continue to water a lawn in the desert.
Setting aside the politics of climate change and our arid land
with its endless water crisis — a basic definition of “desert”
— there were no children at home to play on it. -Written by John L. Smith, an author and Nevada
Independent columnist.
The Colorado River Basin covers more than 246,000 square miles
in seven U.S. states (Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico,
Arizona, Nevada, and California) and Mexico. Pursuant to
federal law, the Bureau of Reclamation (part of the Department
of the Interior) manages much of the basin’s water supplies.
Colorado River water is used primarily for agricultural
irrigation and municipal and industrial (M&I) uses; it is
also important for hydropower production, fish and wildlife,
and recreational uses.
Prickly pear cactuses used by Indigenous peoples to make the
popular Mexican and Southwestern nopales are shriveling in an
increasingly hot and dry southern Sonoran Desert.
Ancestral lands along the California coast may soon be
underwater, rendering them worthless to many Native peoples,
including the Salinan, Chumash, Tongva and Ajechemem, even
as other lands burn in ever-larger wildfires. Some salmon
species teeter on the brink of extinction due to drought and
diverted water, while elsewhere, people and homes are
swept away on a brown tsunami-like wave of floodwaters.
In the wake of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) declaring
a federal water shortage of the Colorado River Basin, NGWA is
again stressing the need for increased funding for aquifer
recharge and water reuse projects in the western United States.
On August 16, the USBR declared its first-ever water shortage
of the Colorado River Basin, which will trigger a smaller
amount of water distributed from Lake Mead and cuts to
individual state water allocations.
In this summer of wildfires, heat waves and drought, there was
another bit of bad environmental news out of the West this
week. Federal officials declared a water shortage at Lake Mead,
the huge reservoir on the Colorado River near Las Vegas,
setting off sharp cuts in water to Arizona farmers next
year…. The declaration, and the mandatory supply cuts,
had long been expected. What is less certain is how much the
reductions will help. Will more cuts be necessary, and, if so,
when?
In North America, the countries that share the Colorado River
Delta are experiencing a similar reality as their own
diplomatic relationship is shaped by cross-border water
exchanges. And like Israel and Jordan, the U.S. and Mexico are
now considering the role desalination might play in sharing
this vital resource. … Establishing a desalination
facility jointly operated by the U.S. and Mexico could help
“bolster resilience in the Colorado River Basin,” according to
the Binational Study of Water Desalination Opportunities
in the Sea of Cortez.
The I-Team has learned a federal water shortage declaration on
the Colorado River is expected on Monday. That would trigger
some mandatory cutbacks. Lake Mead, where we get 90% of our
water, is at record low levels right now. Valley residents are
urged to conserve water. Now, the I-Team is taking a look at
residents who are considered to use the most.
A two-decade-long megadrought along the Colorado River is
pushing seven Western states and parts of Mexico into a formal
shortage declaration, forcing water delivery cuts to the
Southwest that are just the beginning of the pain climate
change promises to bring to the region. Climate scientists and
water managers have long seen this declaration coming, but
what’s alarming them is the speed with which the hot and dry
conditions over the past four years have shrunk the river’s two
main reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, to levels not seen
since they were first filled.
Everyone in the West knows that we’re living through a
historic, two-decade drought. The climate crisis is making
droughts worse, putting pressure on all of us to use the water
we have more wisely. When I was elected, I knew confronting
water issues would be one of my top priorities. I’m doing
everything I can in the U.S. Senate to help my hometown and all
Western communities address drought and water shortages. -Written by U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat
who has represented Nevada in the Senate since 2017.
The federal government on Monday declared a first-ever water
shortage on the Colorado River, announcing
mandatory cutbacks next year that will bring major
challenges for Arizona farmers and reduce the water
allotments of Nevada and Mexico. The declaration of a shortage
by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has been anticipated for
months and was triggered by the spiraling decline of Lake Mead,
which stores water used by Arizona, Nevada, California and
Mexico.
Officials in Lower Colorado River Basin states want to slow the
decline of Lake Mead’s water levels over the next few years by
paying Southern California farmers not to plant crops. It’s not
a plan that Bill Hasencamp, manager of Colorado River resources
for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California,
considers a “drought buster,” but it will reduce lake level
decline by up to 3 feet over the next three years, he said.
In part one of this article, I covered the American West’s
water problems, as well as some of the ways they have been
solved with big engineering projects so far. Now, with climate
change and growth both pushing the limits of water supplies,
people are asking for even bigger projects, like a pipeline
from the Mississippi River to somewhere in the Colorado River’s
basin. Let’s talk about those ideas, even bigger ones, and why
none of them might be a good idea. -Written by Jennifer Sensiba, a long time efficient
vehicle enthusiast, writer, and photographer.
A thick, white band of newly exposed rock face stretches high
above boaters’ heads at Lake Powell, creating a sharp contrast
against the famous red desert terrain as their vessels weave
through tight canyons that were once underwater. It’s a stark
reminder of how far the water level has fallen at the massive
reservoir on the Utah-Arizona border. Last year, it was more
than 50 feet (15 meters) higher. The level at the popular
destination for houseboat vacations is at a historic low amid
a megadrought engulfing the U.S. West.
Bureau of Reclamation Deputy Commissioner Camille Calimlim
Touton today named Jacklynn (Jaci) L. Gould as regional
director for the Lower Colorado Basin Region. Gould has more
than 29 years of experience with Reclamation. … As regional
director, Gould will lead over 800 employees in the region,
which encompasses the last 700 miles of the Colorado River to
the Mexican border, southern Nevada, southern California, and
most of Arizona. She will oversee hydropower operations and
maintenance for 15 facilities …
The Bureau of Reclamation’s California Great-Basin Region
announces the selection of Jack Worsley as the Lahontan Basin
Area Office Manager. The area office administers Reclamation
activities over a large portion of the Great Basin, including
the watersheds of Lake Tahoe, the Truckee and Carson rivers,
and much of northern Nevada. The office oversees the operations
of the Newlands Project, one of Reclamation’s first projects,
and the facilities that regulate Lake Tahoe and the Truckee
River.
Across the U.S. West, shifting climate patterns are wreaking
havoc. An early start to fire season is scorching rural Oregon
and parts of Northern California. Record temperatures have led
to deaths of hundreds of residents of Seattle and Portland,
Ore. Lake Mead, the massive Colorado River reservoir outside
Las Vegas, is at its lowest point since its 1935 federal
construction, threatening water supplies to Arizona, Southern
California, Nevada and Mexico. In Arizona, 99% of the land
is undergoing years-long drought that has accelerated. Large
swaths of the region are now in extreme distress and the
picture may well get worse…
No other region in the country is warming faster than the
western United States when it comes to increasing daytime
highs, a trend that became apparent with the unprecedented and
record-shattering heat wave that took over the Pacific
Northwest earlier this summer. Heat has been building all
across the west this year. In June, Idaho, Utah, Arizona,
Nevada and California all had record heat statewide. Salt Lake
City had its warmest June in 74 years of records with an
average temperature of 80.2 F, which is 8.6 degrees Fahrenheit
above normal.
Today, in Episode 3 of Drought Week, we take a journey through
the American Southwest to Las Vegas, down to Arizona’s Sonoran
Desert and through California’s Mojave Desert. We speak to a
social scientist, a folklorist and a politician about their
efforts to understand the plants and animals affected by this
historic drought. We’ll focus on three iconic plants: Joshua
trees. Saguaro cactuses. And, well, lawn grass.
With water levels falling rapidly at Lake Powell on the
Arizona-Utah border, federal officials are taking what could be
the first of several steps to prop it up. This month the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation started a six-month effort to raise the
lake around 3 feet by the end of 2021 by releasing 181,000 acre
feet of water from three upstream reservoirs. It comes as the
lake just Sunday fell below its lowest level on record.
Earlier this year, the Nevada legislature made turf removal a
requirement in cases where grass exists for purely aesthetic
purposes. The legislation, pushed by the water authority and
signed by Governor Steve Sisolak, requires the removal of all
decorative, or “nonfunctional,” turf in Las Vegas by 2026.
Under this law, residents can keep their lawns, and parks can
keep their fields. But that turf decorating medians and
buildings must be converted to less water-intensive vegetation.
Irrigating grass in the desert heat demands a lot of
water.
When the current drought began in 2000, the three Lower Basin
states that take water from the lake (Arizona, California
and Nevada) suddenly awakened to the problem. After several
years of difficult negotiations, they agreed on a Drought
Contingency Plan (DCP) that, with previously agreed cuts,
would bring the lake into balance. Hoping the drought
would lift before too long, the DCP negotiators agreed to
spread the cuts over coming years in response to changing lake
levels. However, as the drought continues and intensifies, the
Drought Contingency Plan is looking more like a Drought
Certainty Plan. -Written by former Secretary of the Interior Bruce
Babbitt.
Monsoon season in the Southwestern United States is providing
relief to parts of the region that are desperate for any kind
of precipitation, but life-threatening flash floods and
lightning are also part of the deal. On Thursday night, a
downpour in Phoenix and Scottsdale, Ariz., brought heavy rain,
lightning and National Weather Service cellphone alerts of “a
dangerous and life-threatening situation.” … [T]his year
has already seen a dramatic difference — a 200 percent increase
in precipitation over the last two months in parts of the
Southwest.
The Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, will visit Denver
to address the worsening drought and wildfire
conditions. The biggest area of concern is the deep
drought on the western slope. Haaland will be in Grand
Junction Friday talking about wildland fire preparedness and
response. On Saturday, Haaland will be in Ridgeway discussing
Colorado’s outdoor recreation economy.
The Bureau of Reclamation announced the selection
of Michael Norris as the Area Manager of its Lower
Colorado Basin Region Yuma Area Office. He has served as the
Deputy Area Manager for seven years. In his new capacity,
Norris is responsible for delivery of Colorado River water to
the Yuma area and Mexico, groundwater and salinity management,
resource management, engineering and construction.
A new report issued today by seven environmental non-profit
organizations examines ten strategies to bolster climate
resilience and mitigate the impact of climate change in the
Colorado River Basin, which is currently grappling with a
historic megadrought. A crucial source of water for over 40
million people, the Colorado River is facing severe declines in
stream flows and a looming federal shortage declaration as a
result of a decades-long drought and increasing temperatures.
Through her new documentary, “Where There Once Was Water,”
Brittany App introduces innovative ways to conserve water,
restore ecosystems, and reconsider our relationship with the
natural world. The film follows her venturing through
California and the Southwest in search of people practicing
wise water management.
A historic drought has desiccated much of the American West,
bringing reservoir levels to record lows and stoking fears of
catastrophic wildfires across the region. We spoke with two
members of the Water Policy Center research network and experts
on the Colorado River: Dr. Bonnie Colby of the University of
Arizona (she’s also a member of the Colorado River Research
Group) and John Fleck of the University of New Mexico. Prepare
to be surprised: we encountered some delightful optimism in
this wide-ranging conversation.
The growing crisis on the Colorado River came into sharper
focus last week when the Bureau of Reclamation began emergency
releases from Flaming Gorge Reservoir to shore up
Lake Powell’s declining levels, now at historic lows. The
move will bolster Powell’s level by 3 feet in hopes of
preventing it from dropping to a point where Glen Canyon Dam
would not be able to generate electrical power, according to
the agency’s Upper Colorado regional director Wayne Pullan.
The American West was once seen as a place of endless
possibilities: grand vistas, bountiful resources and cities
that somehow grew out of deserts. Now, manifest destiny has
become a manifest emergency. A scorching drought made worse by
climate change is draining reservoirs at an alarming pace,
fueling massive wildfires and deadly heat waves and withering
one of the most important agricultural economies in the
country.
The North American monsoon has returned to Colorado, and the
rain has brought some much-needed relief to some of the driest
parts of the state — after multiple back-to-back years of
almost no summer rain. … Gov. Jared Polis has recently
declared a drought emergency for the region and the rest of
western Colorado. … The seasonal moisture from the
tropics creates afternoon cloud cover that protects …
drought-stricken creeks from baking in the sun. The rain helps
lower the risk for wildfires. The timing of the monsoon is
vital to Colorado’s ecosystem, which evolved on its schedule.
A study from UNLV shows some interesting results about how much
water people used during Governor Steve Sisolak’s stay at home
order in March 2020. Researchers at UNLV wanted to know the
impact staying at home had on water use. Researchers looked at
water bills from Henderson before the stay at home order and
several months after the order was in place. The study found
usage at home soared, outpacing pre-pandemic usage at homes,
businesses and schools.
The punishing heat wave continues in much of the West. However,
for some in places in the Southwest including Arizona, the
long-awaited monsoon will bring milder temperatures and
rainfall. It may just arrive a little bit too fast, raising
flash flooding concerns in the area. … Rainfall amounts of
anywhere from a half inch to 1 inch are possible, said the
National Weather Service in Phoenix. Upper-end amounts of 2 to
4 inches aren’t out of the question.
As concerns flare over record-low water levels at Lake Mead, a
new UNLV study shows that COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home orders
— and a subsequent societal shift to remote work — may be
exacerbating the problem. The study, recently published in the
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, found that
Las Vegas Valley residential water use soared during the
pandemic, outpacing even combined pre-pandemic usage across
Southern Nevada’s three main property types (residential,
commercial, and schools).
The Colorado River makes an impressive 1,400-mile journey from
Colorado, all the way to the U.S.-Mexico border. It starts as
snowpack in Rocky Mountain National Park in Northern Colorado
and makes its way westward to Utah. The Utah portion of the
river course starts on the Colorado Plateau before heading to
Moab, where the water sweeps by Arches and Canyonlands national
parks – both amazing landscapes eroded into canyons and mesas
by the Colorado and Green rivers.
With the west in extreme drought, Lake Mead, fed by the
Colorado River and formed by the Hoover Dam, reached historic
lows in June. The water level continues to fall, continuing a
trend that began more than 20 years ago. The Federal government
is expected to declare a water shortage in the lower basin of
the Colorado River by 2022 at the latest, which will trigger
mandatory water cuts in Arizona and Nevada. These cuts will
particularly impact farmers. But they are likely to hit
indigenous communities particularly hard …
Caddisfly swarms along the Colorado River in Laughlin are
annoying most residents, but scientists see them as an
opportunity. Dr. Michael Cavallaro, entomologist and pest
abatement manager for Bullhead City, is working on a project to
find a permanent solution to the swarms, which have become a
nuisance for residents and businesses. He thinks the residents
should feel honored, since caddisflies swarm only in healthy
ecosystems with high-quality, clean water.
[S]ince 2000, scientists say the river’s flow has dwindled
by 20% compared to the previous century’s average. This year is
the second driest on record, with the flow into Lake Mead just
a quarter of what would be considered normal. … In June,
the level of Lake Mead plunged below 1,075ft, a point that will
trigger, for the first time, federally mandated cuts in water
allocations next year. The Bureau of Reclamation expects this
historic low to spiral further …
For the past few weeks, the American West has been confronting
a hellish climate nightmare of scorching heat waves, a severe
drought, and raging wildfires. And it’s not just the
West—or even the United States. In
typically chilly Siberia, ground temperatures reached
a blistering 118 degrees Fahrenheit. The Middle
East has been gripped by a searing heat wave and a drought
that has especially hammered Syria. In late June, a
small Canadian village was almost completely consumed
by wildfire. China is also bracing for another year
of extreme weather…
[A]fter years of an unrelenting drought that has quickly
accelerated amid record temperatures and lower snowpack melt,
[Lake Mead] is set to mark another, more dire turning
point. Next month, the federal government expects to declare
its first-ever shortage on the lake, triggering cuts
to water delivered to Arizona, Nevada and Mexico on Jan.
1. If the lake, currently at 1,068 feet, drops 28 more
feet by next year, the spigot of water to California will start
to tighten in 2023.
The Colorado River is tapped out. Another dry year has left the
waterway that supplies 40 million people in the Southwest
parched. A prolonged 21-year warming and drying trend is
pushing the nation’s two largest reservoirs to record lows. For
the first time this summer, the federal government will declare
a shortage. Climate change is exacerbating the current drought.
Warming temperatures are upending how the water cycle functions
in the Southwest. The 1,450-mile long river acts as a drinking
water supply, a hydroelectric power generator, and an irrigator
of crop fields across seven Western states and two in Mexico.
The Bureau of Reclamation Tuesday announced the selection of
Tonya Hart as the Regional Engineer of the Lower Colorado Basin
Region. In this capacity, she oversees and provides direction
for the Region’s engineering activities in Arizona, Southern
Nevada and Southern California. Additionally, she oversees the
operations and maintenance of Reclamation’s Boulder City
campus. Hart most recently served as a Supervisory Civil
Engineer in the Geotechnical Services Division of Reclamation’s
Technical Service Center (TSC) located in Denver,
Colorado.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to
downgrade a Colorado River fish, the razorback sucker, from
“endangered” to “threatened.” The razorback sucker was listed
as endangered in 1991 due to habitat loss and predation by
introduced exotic species. Wildlife officials say the
population has recovered to tens of thousands of fish in the
Green, San Juan, and Colorado rivers, meeting the criteria for
downlisting. However, the Fish and Wildlife Service
acknowledges many razorback suckers born in the wild do not
reach adulthood.
Lake Mead, which provides water for 25 million people in
the American West, has shrunk to 36 percent of its capacity.
One rural California community has run out of water entirely
after its well broke in early June. Fields are sitting fallow,
as farmers sell their water allotments instead of growing
crops, putting the nation’s food supply in peril. As the West
withers under extreme drought, legislators in the US House of
Representatives have introduced HR 4099, a bill that would
direct the Secretary of the Interior to create a program to
fund $750 million worth of water recycling projects in the 17
western states through the year 2027.
A pair of governors on Sunday called on the federal government
for help and pushed for solutions as their states grapple with
recording-breaking temperatures, drought and wildfires that
officials have said is being driven by climate change.
… The bipartisan plea follows a meeting last
week between President Joe Biden and other Western governors
during which he announced new federal response plans to help
address the wildfire threats and extreme heat being driven by
climate change. They include extending seasonal hiring, adding
“surge capacity” by training and equipping additional
personnel, and adding fire detection resources.
Massive buildings are sprouting from our desert landscapes,
their footprints normally more than a million square feet. The
structures are filled with computer servers processing and
storing huge amounts of data. … Duff is the only city
council member to vote no on a recently approved $800 million
data center – rumored to be for Facebook – after discovering
the facility would eventually use 1.75 million gallons of water
every day for cooling their rows of servers once fully
operational. This as state reservoirs like Lake Mead and rivers
like the Colorado are so low that federal restrictions are
likely to be triggered on Arizona’s water allocation as early
as next year.
The United States and Mexico are tussling over their dwindling
shared water supplies after years of unprecedented heat and
insufficient rainfall. Sustained drought on the middle-lower
Rio Grande since the mid-1990s means less Mexican water flows
to the U.S. The Colorado River Basin, which supplies seven U.S.
states and two Mexican states, is also at record low levels. A
1944 treaty between the U.S. and Mexico governs water relations
between the two neighbors.
For thousands of years, an Arizona tribe relied on the Colorado
River’s natural flooding patterns to farm….Now, gravity sends
the river water from the north end of the Colorado River Indian
Tribes reservation through 19th century canals to sustain
alfalfa, cotton, wheat, onions and potatoes, mainly by flooding
the fields. Some of those fields haven’t been producing lately
as the tribe contributes water to prop up Lake Mead to help
weather a historic drought in the American West…. As
Arizona faces mandatory cuts next year in its Colorado River
supply, the tribes see themselves as major players in the
future of water.
Skiers and snowboarders pray for snow so they can shred the
slopes. Climatologists and hydrologists have an entirely
different and more critical reason to cross their fingers for
the “white gold.” The West’s historic drought has many impacts,
including water shortages, more severe wildfire seasons and
unprecedented heat waves, to name a few. Intense droughts are a
result of many factors, one of which scientists have recently
begun to analyze with more scrutiny: snow drought.
As a warming climate reduces the river’s flow, [Utah State
University scientist Jack] Schmidt, 70, is making what could be
his most important push to shape the fate of his beloved
waterway. He and his colleagues are working to inject a dose of
scientific reality into public debate over water resources
that, the team says, is too often clouded by wishful or
outdated thinking. The biggest delusion: that there will be
enough water in a drier future to satisfy all the demands from
cities, farmers, power producers, and others, while still
protecting sensitive ecosystems and endangered species.
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.
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.
Colorado River water managers could be pulled back to the
negotiating table as soon as next year to keep its biggest
reservoirs from declining further. The 2019 Drought Contingency
Plan was meant to give the U.S. and Mexican states that depend
on the river a roadmap to manage water shortages. That plan
requires the river’s biggest reservoir, Lake Mead, to drop to
unprecedented levels before conservation among all the lower
basin states — Arizona, Nevada and California — becomes
mandatory. California isn’t required to conserve water in the
reservoir until it drops to an elevation of 1,045 feet above
sea level.
Drought may be the sneakiest of natural disasters. Although
human history teems with people engulfed by abrupt aridity —
the Akkadians of four millenniums ago, the Maya in the ninth
and 10th centuries A.D., the Great Plains farmers of the 1930s
— even today drought is a poorly appreciated phenomenon. …
The American West is once again facing drought, one of the
worst on record. Across a vast region encompassing nine states
and home to nearly 60 million people, the earth is being wrung
dry. -Written by Farhad Manjoo, NY Times opinion columnist.
It might be tempting to shrug at the scorching weather across
large swaths of the West. This just in: It gets hot in the
summer. But this record-setting heat wave’s remarkable power,
size and unusually early appearance is giving meteorologists
and climate experts yet more cause for concern about the
routinization of extreme weather in an era of climate change.
These sprawling, persistent high-pressure zones popularly
called “heat domes” are relatively common in later summer
months. This current system is different.
Lake Powell’s water level is the lowest it’s been in decades,
and the latest 24-month projections from the Arizona and Utah
reservoir show that it’s likely to drop even further — below a
critical threshold of 3,525 feet by next
year. A 20-year megadrought and a hotter climate
has contributed to shrinking water supplies in the
Colorado River. If Lake Powell’s levels continue to dwindle, it
could set off litigation between the seven states and the 40
million people that all rely on the Colorado River.
Record-breaking heat and historic drought in the U.S. West are
doing little to discourage cities from planning to welcome
millions of new residents in the decades ahead. From Phoenix to
Boise, officials are preparing for a future both with more
people and less water, seeking to balance growth and
conservation. Development is constrained by the fact that 46%
of the 11-state Western region is federal land, managed by
agencies like the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land
Management that are tasked with maintaining it for future
generations.
Summer has not officially started yet, but wildfire season has
already arrived in the US. Now an intense heat wave coupled
with extreme drought is threatening to make things worse. Large
wildfires have already burned 981,000 acres this year to date,
more than the 766,000 acres burned by the same time last year,
according to the National Interagency Fire Center. In Arizona,
more than 208,000 acres have burned, sending smoke into
Colorado.
The Bureau of Reclamation announced that Carly Jerla will lead
the Department of the Interior’s efforts, as a senior water
resources program manager, to develop updated operating
rules for Colorado River reservoirs. The Colorado River
sustains ecosystems and economies across the southwestern
United States and northwestern Mexico. A number of operating
rules and agreements within the United States and with the
Republic of Mexico expire at the end of 2025.
A heat dome is baking Arizona and Nevada, … At Lake Mead,
which supplies water for 25 million people in three
southwestern states and Mexico, water levels have plunged to
their lowest point since the reservoir was filled in the 1930s.
In California, farmers are abandoning their thirstiest crops to
save others, and communities are debating whether to ration tap
water….And it’s not even summer yet.
As the Southwest prepares for what’s forecast to be another
mercilessly hot and dry summer, tensions over water scarcity
are rising like the mercury. Farmers are facing bleak growing
seasons and the possibility of farm failures in several areas
due to cutbacks in water allocations for irrigation, creating
friction between the ag community and cities on the dwindling
water supply in the region. Rural communities in Nevada and
elsewhere, already wary of incursions by urban areas into their
water supplies, are on high alert as the water crisis deepens.
The problem, as always, is that water keeps flowing from the
tap. Every other indicator is telling us we should be in red
alert right now about Arizona’s climate and water situation.
But when we turn the valve, even on these blazing days,
drinkable water flows. It’s a luxury in this season and this
place. And it makes it easy to turn away from the news. But we
shouldn’t. -Written by Tim Steller.
Managers of some Arizona golf courses are fighting a plan that
would cut water use at a time when the state is being
forced to confront shrinking water supplies. A group
representing golf courses has been pushing back against a
proposal by state officials that would reduce overall
water use on courses, instead offering a plan that would entail
less conservation. Opposition to the state’s proposal for
golf courses has emerged over the past several months, aired in
sometimes-tense virtual meetings …
With a worsening drought gripping the West and wildfire season
looming, California is bracing for the most severe heat wave of
the year — one that promises to tax the state’s power supplies
while also offering a grim preview of challenging months to
come. The heat wave will bring triple-digit temperatures to the
valleys and inland regions of Southern California as well as
many parts of the rest of the state, heightening fire risks. It
comes as parts of Northern and Central California are turning
to water restrictions as the drought rapidly alters the
landscape.
Water is increasingly scarce in the Western U.S. — where 72
percent of the region is in “severe” drought, 26 percent is in
exceptional drought, and populations are booming. Insufficient
monsoon rains last summer and low snowpacks over the winter
left states like Arizona, Utah and Nevada without the typical
amount of water they need, and forecasts for the rainy summer
season don’t show promise. … The past two decades have been
the driest or the second driest in the last 1,200 years in the
West, posing existential questions about how to secure a
livable future in the region.
Lake Mead has declined to its lowest level since the reservoir
was filled in the 1930s following the construction of Hoover
Dam, marking a new milestone for the water-starved Colorado
River in a downward spiral that shows no sign of letting up.
The reservoir near Las Vegas holds water for cities, farms and
tribal lands in Arizona, Nevada, California and Mexico. Years
of unrelenting drought and temperatures pushed higher by
climate change are shrinking the flow into the lake,
contributing to the large mismatch between the demands for
water and the Colorado’s diminishing supply.
A crippling drought in the western US is dropping the water
level at Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam to a historically low
level, putting pressure on the region’s drinking water supply
and the dam’s electric capacity. By Thursday, Lake Mead’s water
level is expected to sink to the lowest it’s been since it
began filling during construction of the Hoover Dam, according
to Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman Patricia Aaron.
With Lake Mead approaching critically-low levels, the Southern
Nevada Water Authority recently turned to the Legislature to
double-down on its existing strategy for using less water: turf
removal. … [Southern Nevada Water Authority general manager
John] Entsminger, in a recent interview, said the prohibition
would result in significant water savings. The removal of an
estimated 3,900 acres of decorative turf could save roughly 9.3
billion gallons of water annually — about 10 percent of the
state’s entire Colorado River allotment.
A punishing drought is gripping much of the western U.S.
Scientists are calling it a “mega-drought” brought on by
climate change. It’s taking a dramatic toll on the Colorado
River system that provides water to 40 million people in seven
states. For more than eight decades, the Hoover Dam has relied
on water from Nevada’s Lake Mead to cover up its backside. But
now at age 85 it finds itself uncomfortably exposed. Much of
the water the dam is supposed to be holding back is gone.
Storms from the Pacific set to swing into the rain-starved West
Coast this week may end up turning detrimental, AccuWeather
forecasters say, by whipping up gusty winds and heightening the
risk of lightning-induced wildfires. With over 87% of the
Western states in moderate to exceptional drought, the news of
Pacific storms poised to sweep onshore may sound good on the
surface. However, the pattern will be a double-edged sword.
Each storm is expected to arrive with “very limited moisture,”
according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex
Sosnowski.
In Sin City, one thing that will soon become unforgivable is
useless grass. A new Nevada law will outlaw about 40% of the
grass in the Las Vegas area in an effort to conserve water amid
a drought that is drying up the region’s primary water source:
the Colorado River. Other cities and states around the US have
enacted temporary bans on lawns that must be watered, but
legislation signed Friday by the state’s governor, Steve
Sisolak, makes Nevada the first in the nation to enact a
permanent ban on certain categories of grass.
Drought is taking a dramatic toll on the Colorado River
system that provides water to 40 million people in seven states
– and may force the federal government to make a drastic and
historic decision. For more than eight decades, the
iconic Hoover Dam has relied on water from Nevada’s
Lake Mead to cover up its backside. But now, at age 85, it
finds itself uncomfortably exposed. Much of the water the dam
is supposed to be holding back is gone.
Arizona and other Western states just lived through the driest
year in more than a century, with no drought relief in sight in
the near future, experts told a House panel last week. The
period from April 2020 to March 2021 was the driest in the last
126 years for Arizona and other Western states, witnesses said.
It capped a two-decade stretch that was the driest in more than
100 years that records have been kept – and one of the driest
in the past 1,200 years based on paleohydrology evidence, one
official said.
With California’s rivers running low after two consecutive dry
winters, state officials and local water agencies have pumped
out a steady stream of drought declarations and calls for water
conservation in recent weeks. It’s clear the Golden State is in
a drought and it could escalate to a crisis, but, you may be
wondering, just how bad is it?
Nearly half of the country — from the Pacific coast to the
Great Plains and upper Midwest — is experiencing moderate to
exceptional drought conditions. That’s expected to get worse
throughout the summer. … UCLA climatologist Park Williams:
“This drought is far from over. 2021 is shaping up to
potentially be the driest of all of the drought years in the
last century, and definitely one of the driest of the last
millennium.”
As reality plays out, I continue to read how the drought in the
American West is causing levels in Lake’s Mead and Powell to
plummet. I also continue to see no action or accountability to
take bold action to resolve the issue as uncontrolled
development continues in the greater Phoenix and Las Vegas
areas. … There are 17 desalination plants operating in
California and the one in Carlsbad — the Claude Bud Lewis
Desalination Plant — is the largest in the U.S. -Written by R.B. Provencher, a former manager for the
U.S. Department of Energy and retired in Idaho Falls.
Assembly Joint Resolution 4 passed both houses of the Nevada
Legislature. The resolution now urges Congress and the
President to protect certain land containing swamp cedar trees
in Spring Valley, Nevada by designating the site a national
monument or expanding the Great Basin National Park to include
the area.
Every time I write about water, I get a similar email from
different folks. It argues that if we can build pipelines to
move oil, we should be able to capture and pipe enough
floodwater from the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Snake or
(insert your river here) to resolve shortages on the Colorado
River. I appreciate the big thinking. But I wish we could move
past this idea. Because we’ve studied this before, in multiple
iterations. Each solution has been projected to cost multiple
billions of dollars. Most would not produce enough water to fix
our problems. And trust me, someone’s going to fight several
hundred miles of pipe being laid across their land to make this
happen. -Written by Joanna Allhands, an Arizona Republic
columnist.
On the federal government’s drought map, the hardest-hit areas
— the driest of the dry — are shaded in crimson red. Looking at
the current map, the coloring makes it appear that someone
plunged a knife into Southern Nevada, and blood flowed to
portions of California, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and even
Texas. One glance at this map and any reasonable person would
understand that the region needs to take its water conservation
efforts up several notches.
After a wildfire, soils in burned areas often become water
repellent, leading to increased erosion and flooding after
rainfall events – a phenomenon that many scientists have
attributed to smoke and heat-induced changes in soil chemistry.
But this post-fire water repellency may also be caused by
wildfire smoke in the absence of heat, according to a new paper
from the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Nevada.
A crippling drought — largely connected to climate change — is
gripping the Western United States, affecting over 70 million
people and around 40% of the U.S. … Farmers,
scientists, tribal officials, foresters and other groups
affected by the worsening drought testified at a House Natural
Resources Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife hearing on
Tuesday, asking lawmakers for both short-term relief and
long-term solutions from the worsening conditions.
Arizona and other Western states just lived through the driest
year in more than a century, with no drought relief in sight in
the near future, experts told a House panel Tuesday. The period
from last April to this March was the driest in the last 126
years for Arizona and other Western states, witnesses said. It
caps a two-decade stretch that was the driest in more than 100
years that records have been kept – and one of the driest in
the past 1,200 years based on paleohydrology evidence, one
official said.
The Arizona Legislature wants to look into the feasibility of
pumping water from the Mississippi River to Arizona. But the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has already studied the idea, and
weighed in on the project in 2012. The agency studied factors
such as cost, legal issues, power use and the amount of time
the project would take. A report estimated the project could
cost up to $14 billion; the timetable was around 30
years.
The 2021 legislative session is an anomaly. Notwithstanding
COVID, the bad water bills died early and the good ones pressed
on. That is not the norm. But it appears that more folks are
beginning to believe these are not normal times. Indeed,
this year is different. Long-time foes are singing kumbaya in
praise of AB356. The legislation, which passed both
chambers, saves 10 billion gallons of water annually in
Southern Nevada –– defending the dwindling supply of Colorado
River water by mandating the removal of all non-functional turf
by 2027 in Southern Nevada. -Written by Kyle Roerink, executive director of
the Great Basin Water Network.
Beginning next week, the Bureau of Reclamation plans to reduce
overnight releases from Davis Dam on selected dates in an
attempt to decrease the local caddisfly population – following
a request from the cities of Laughlin, Nevada and Bullhead
City, Arizona. The reduced flows along the river reach below
Davis Dam will help with an ongoing pest abatement study being
conducted by the downstream communities to combat this nuisance
species that negatively impacts businesses and visitors to the
area.
Arizona’s drought has lawmakers looking into drawing water from
the Mississippi River to be used here in the desert. “This kind
of project would be looking 20 years down the road,” said
Republican Rep. Tim Dunn from Yuma. Dunn sponsored
House Concurrent Memorial 2004, which got bipartisan support in
the Arizona legislature, and urges Congress to study a plan for
a pipeline that would take water out of the Mississippi River
near Davenport, Iowa.
Millions of people are betting on Arizona. They’re buying
homes, starting businesses, and families. The future of how we
use our water resources may dictate the future of their
success. … That question was addressed four decades earlier
with the Groundwater Management Act of 1980. The idea was the
law would ensure when water was taken out, just as much was put
back in, creating what they called a safe yield goal by
2025. Unfortunately, a new study released by ASU
researchers with the Kyl Center shows the law is not living up
to its promise as deep, thousands of years old aquifers
continue to be over-pumped.
The drought has some members of the Arizona Legislature
wondering if the state should look for a new source of water:
the Mississippi River. Conservationists wonder if lawmakers
should try a different approach. As Arizona braces for a
drought contingency plan to kick in, the Legislature has
floated the idea of damming the Mississippi and piping the
water here. The idea received overwhelming support among
lawmakers, though it is unclear if the project is viable. Sandy
Bahr, with the Sierra Club, told KJZZ’s The Show last month the
state needs to adjust its thinking about water, especially in
times of drought.
A federal appeals court has rebuked the U.S. government for
failing to properly consider the interest of Native American
nations in developing allocation guidelines for the Colorado
River Basin’s waters and ordered it to prioritize obligations
assumed when it signed a treaty with the Navajo Nation in 1868.
The April 28 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
may boost Native American negotiating clout as the basin’s
states ponder how to address impacts of ongoing drought in the
region.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced
on Thursday that a key weather feature that affects global
temperature and precipitation has shifted into a “neutral,” or
average, state. La Niña, one of the factors behind last year’s
extremely active Atlantic hurricane season and a contributor to
below-average rainfall in the South and Southwest, has faded
away….In California, any drought relief associated with the
end of La Niña won’t come during the dry season that runs well
into next fall.
Ben Tobin has questions about the Grand Canyon’s caves. The
University of Kentucky geologist started learning about caves
as a young man, in part because his mother was a geologist, and
a childhood fascination grew over time. … When he was in
college, an internship in Arkansas doing cave tours got him
hooked, and eventually his work brought him out West, to Grand
Canyon National Park. Tobin specializes in what’s known as
karst hydrology. These are underground systems made up of
soluble rock such as limestone. To Tobin, caves are like
another world, with blind animals, fossils and archeological
finds.
Only one week remains to register for our May 20 virtual
Lower
Colorado River Tour where you can hear directly
from experts offering a range of perspectives on the most
contested and meticulously managed river in the United
States. Practically every drop of water in the
Colorado River is already allocated, but pressure on the
hard-working river continues to grow from myriad sources —
increasing population, declining habitat and climate
change.
As Californians can tell by the already beige hills, the early
fire weather warnings and the dusty umbrellas sitting deep
inside closets, it’s been drier than usual this winter. And
according to decades worth of precipitation data, that’s the
new normal. What’s considered “normal” for baseline rainfall
amounts is determined by a 30-year average that gets
recalculated every decade. The latest recalculation, according
to Jan Null, a forecaster who runs Golden Gate Weather
Services, “show a noticeably drier state” through 2020 compared
to the previous “normal” calculation covering 1981 through
2010.
Tiny specks of degraded plastics have been documented in the
snowpack around Lake Tahoe — and in the lake itself. They
have been found in the Las Vegas Wash. The phenomenon is not
unique to Nevada. Microplastics, the end product of our plastic
consumption, have been found in ecosystems across the
world, even in remote areas. Microplastics are small
— less than 5 millimeters — but they are not uniform.
They can have different shapes and vary in size. Microplastics
from clothing can appear as synthetic fibers, whereas degraded
plastic from bags or water bottles might take on a different
composition.
Spring is generally a time of renewal for the watersheds of the
western United States. Warmed by the lengthening days, the
region’s towering mountain ranges shed their mantle of snow,
releasing freshets of water into welcoming streams and
reservoirs. This year, though, the cycle is in disarray.
Outside of the Olympic and Cascade ranges of Washington state,
winter snows were subpar. The spring melt has been a dud. From
the Klamath to the Colorado and Rio Grande, watersheds are
under stress once again, and water managers face difficult
tradeoffs between farms, fisheries, and at-home uses.
Arizona legislators are looking eastward to ease the impact of
a two-decade drought in the Colorado River Basin. According to
Arizona Rep. Tim Dunn, who represents the area of Yuma, the
Legislature is asking Congress to fund a technological and
feasibility study for diverting floodwater from the Mississippi
River to replenish the Colorado River. Whether that comes in
the form of a diversion dam or pipeline, Dunn says the plan
would benefit both the Midwestern and Southwestern United
States.
Many dryland cities like Los Angeles, Cairo and Tehran have
already outstripped natural water recharge, but are expected to
continue growing, resulting in a deepening arid urban water
crisis. … The situations in arid and semi-arid cities
like Phoenix, Arizona; Bamako, Mali; or Dubai, UAE, differ in
their particulars, but rhyme in their impending disastrous
trajectory. These, and other arid-region cities, are
approaching the edge of an ecological cliff: dependent on
sustaining growth, which itself requires a growth in water
supplied by faraway and finite sources, and delivered by aging
infrastructure. But water in dryland regions is
getting scarcer and supplies
more unpredictable.
The Colorado River Basin appears to be out of miracles this
spring. Five years after a “Miracle May” of record rainfall
staved off what had appeared to be the river’s first imminent
shortage in water deliveries, the hope for another in 2021 “is
fading quickly,” says the Colorado Basin River Forecast
Center’s latest report, released Thursday. That’s one more
piece of bad news for the Central Arizona Project. A first-time
shortage is now likely to slash deliveries of river water to
Central Arizona farmers starting in 2022 but won’t affect
drinking water supplies for Tucson, Phoenix and other cities,
or for tribes and industries that get CAP water.
More than 58,000 fires scorched the United States last year,
and 2021 is on track to be even drier. What many people don’t
realize is that these wildfires can do lasting damage beyond
the reach of the flames – they can contaminate entire drinking
water systems with carcinogens that last for months after the
blaze. … Since 2017, multiple fires have
impacted drinking water systems … including the CZU
Lightning Complex, Camp and Tubbs fires in California.
Thousands of private wells have been affected too.
Early May water supply volume forecasts are below to much below
normal throughout the Colorado River Basin and Great Basin.
Upper Colorado River Basin water supply forecasts range between
15-75% of the 1981-2010 historical April-July average. Great
Basin water supply forecasts are 10-70% of average. … Many
April-July volume forecasts fall in the bottom (driest) five on
record….The Lake Powell inflow forecast is 2.0 MAF (28% of
average), a 17% decrease from April….
Hear directly from a range of experts offering a variety of
perspectives on our May 20 virtual Lower Colorado River Tour as
they put into context the 20-plus year drought on what is the
most contested and meticulously managed river in the United
States. Among the experts featured are farmers, tribal
representatives, and managers from wildlife agencies, water
districts, the Bureau of Reclamation and others who will
discuss drought impacts, habitat projects, farming and
restoration efforts at the Salton Sea.
The official “new normal” for the U.S. climate is warmer than
ever before — and the changes are ominous for California,
experts say. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration on Tuesday released its new climate averages,
based on the 30-year period from 1991 to 2020. The averages,
known as “climate normals,” are updated every 10 years, and
they show most of the country, including California, heating
up. “The influence of long-term global warming is obvious,” the
NOAA said in announcing the updates to its averages.
In 2021, access to running water and clean drinking water is a
given for most Americans. The Census Bureau has even considered
dropping a question on plumbing access from the U.S. census
questionnaire. But many of the nation’s tribes still lack
running water, access to clean water, and even flushing
toilets. Native American households are 19 times more likely
than white households to lack indoor plumbing, according to the
U.S. Water Alliance, and more likely to lack piped water
services than any other racial group. That problem is at an
inflection point for the Navajo Nation and 29 other tribes in
the Colorado River Basin, which stretches from the Rocky
Mountains to Mexico.
The US Bureau of Reclamation last week warned water users to
brace for a 500,000 acre-foot cut in water from the Colorado
River as a historic drought continues to tighten its grip on
the Southwest. The cutback comes on top of a 200,000 acre-foot
reduction Arizona water users agreed to last year in an effort
to put off this day of reckoning. The Central Arizona Project
provides more than a third of the state’s water. The reductions
will mostly impact farmers. The sparse snowpack this winter
soaked into the ground during the hot, dry spring — producing
little runoff.
A recent report looked into why Indigenous communities within
the Colorado River Basin are struggling to get clean, reliable
running water. A household in tribal lands is 19 times more
likely than a white household to not have indoor plumbing, and
during the pandemic this had catastrophic effects on some
Indigenous communities. According a 2019 report outlining the
action plan for closing the water access gap throughout the
United States, “race is the strongest predictor of water and
sanitation access,” and it’s Indigenous people who face this
problem most.
With the Colorado River’s largest reservoir just 38% full and
declining toward the threshold of a first-ever shortage,
Arizona water officials convened an online meeting this week to
outline how the state will deal with water cutbacks, saying the
reductions will be “painful” but plans are in place to lessen
the blow for affected farmers next year. Lake Mead’s decline is
expected to trigger substantial reductions in water deliveries
in 2022 for Arizona, Nevada and Mexico. The largest of those
cuts will affect Arizona, slashing its Colorado River supplies
by 512,000 acre-feet, about a fifth of its total entitlement.
President Biden’s pick this week to oversee the Army’s vast
natural resources operation would bring to the job decades of
water experience at the Interior Department and on Capitol
Hill. The president tapped Michael Connor to be the Department
of Defense’s assistant secretary of the Army for civil works,
which oversees the Army Corps of Engineers and its huge network
of dams and other projects. Connor would play a major role in
some of the most controversial projects facing the Biden
administration in the environmental arena, including the
Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, as well as Clean Water
Act permitting.
In a note of consolation for the pain some Arizona water users
will feel if Central Arizona Project supplies are cut next
year, state water leaders said Thursday: It will be planned
pain. Federal officials have said it’s likely Lake Mead at the
Nevada border will be low enough at the end of 2021 to trigger
the first major cutback in CAP deliveries to the Arizona’s
parched midsection. Arizona will lose 512,000 acre-feet of its
CAP supply — almost one-third of the $4 billion project’s total
supply, according to a 2019 drought contingency plan.
The Nevada Assembly voted Thursday to approve a non-residential
turf removal proposal brought by Southern Nevada water
regulators, who say it will save the water-shy Las Vegas Valley
12 billion gallons of water per year. With little debate from
lawmakers, the Assembly voted 30-12 on Assembly Bill 356,
sending the proposal to the Senate. Four Republicans — Glen
Leavitt, R-Boulder City, Heidi Kasama, R-Las Vegas, Melissa
Hardy, R-Henderson, and Jill Tolles, R-Reno — crossed party
lines to vote with the 26 Democrats.
The Navajo Nation can pursue its lawsuit seeking to force the
federal government to secure water from the Colorado River for
the reservation, the Ninth Circuit said Wednesday, reversing a
lower court’s dismissal of the tribe’s breach of trust claim.
The tribe doesn’t seek a judge’s determination of its rights to
the river, which the Interior Department says would fall under
the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction, according to the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Instead, the tribe
seeks an order for Interior to determine the extent to which it
needs water, to develop a plan to secure…
Water officials in Arizona say they are prepared to lose about
one-fifth of the water the state gets from the Colorado River
in what could be the first federally declared shortage in the
river that supplies millions of people in the U.S. West and
Mexico. Arizona stands to lose more than any other state in the
Colorado River basin that also takes in parts of Wyoming, New
Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Nevada and California. That’s because
Arizona agreed long ago to be the first in line for cuts in
exchange for federal funding for a canal system to deliver the
water to Arizona’s major metropolitan areas.
In what may become an iconic image for drought-stricken
California, Gov. Gavin Newsom stood on the parched bed of Lake
Mendocino on April 21 to announce an emergency declaration for
Sonoma and Mendocino counties. … [T]he reservoir was at a
historically low 43% of capacity, the harbinger of what could
be a devastating drought cycle not only for the Northern
California counties that fell within his drought declaration,
but for most of the state — indeed, the American
West. -Written by Michael Hiltzik, a Los Angeles Times
columnist.
Arizona may be facing its first official declaration of water
shortage next year, a move that would trigger water cutbacks of
512,000 acre-feet — almost 20% of Arizona’s Colorado River
entitlement — affecting mainly agricultural users. The
24-Month Study on the Colorado River system, released this
month by the Bureau of Reclamation, projects that in
June water levels in Lake Mead will fall below 1,075 feet
for the first time, which would put the state in a Tier 1
shortage.
The first automated dust-on-snow monitoring technology in the
mountains of Northwest Colorado is expected to be installed
this fall to study the impact of dust from arid landscapes on
downwind mountain ecosystems in the state and in Utah. McKenzie
Skiles, who is a hydrologist and a University of Utah assistant
professor, will use close to $10,000 from a National Science
Foundation grant to purchase four pyranometers, which measure
solar radiation landing on, and reflected by, snow.
The Colorado River cuts through the Grand Canyon, providing
water for about 40 million people and 5 and a half million
acres of farmland. To some, the water is as valuable as
oil. In 1922, the seven U.S. states through which the
river flows signed onto the Colorado River Compact, a
water-sharing agreement that divvies up the river’s annual
flow. The water must be shared equally between Upper Basin
states: Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico; and the Lower
Basin: California, Arizona and Nevada. There’s been infighting
ever since.
The water level of Lake Mead, the country’s largest reservoir,
has dropped more than 130 feet since the beginning of 2000,
when the lake’s surface lapped at the spillway gates on Hoover
Dam. Twenty-one years later, with the Colorado River
consistently yielding less water as the climate has grown
warmer and drier, the reservoir near Las Vegas sits at just 39%
of capacity. … The river’s reservoirs are shrinking as
the Southwest endures an especially severe bout of dryness
within a two-decade drought intensified by climate
change, one of the driest periods in centuries that shows no
sign of letting up.
The Biden administration has launched a working group focused
on addressing drought conditions in the West as the region
continues to suffer from a long period of water scarcity. The
group, which will be co-chaired by the departments of the
Interior and Agriculture, will work with state, local and
tribal governments on community needs in weathering drought,
according to a news release from the Interior Department.
Visit key infrastructure and environmental restoration
sites along the lower Colorado River during our online
tour May 20 of the iconic river as it weaves through the
Lower Basin states of California, Nevada and Arizona. Our
Lower Colorado
River Tour starts at Hoover Dam near Las Vegas and
stops at major agricultural regions, tourist
destinations and key wildlife areas such as the Salton Sea
and a wildlife refuge in Yuma, Ariz. resulting from a
tribal-city partnership.
Just how bad is the drought in the Western US? The
shrinking of Lake Mead, the country’s largest reservoir, is a
troubling indicator. The massive man-made lake, which
straddles the border of Arizona and Nevada, is now only
at 39 percent of its full capacity, down from 44
percent in April 2020. That’s equivalent to a 10-foot drop
in the water level, according to the latest data from
the Bureau of Reclamation. Which means mandatory
restrictions on the amount of water surrounding states draw
from Lake Mead could be triggered in the next few months.
More than 20 years ago, aquatic ecologist Michael Bogan
interned with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in
Bishop, east of the Sierra Nevadas. It was 1998, a wet year for
California, and the idea of studying water in the desert lodged
in his brain. Desert streams are approachable subjects,
especially compared to, say, a massive and murky system like
the Mississippi River, says Bogan, now a professor at the
University of Arizona’s School of Natural Resources and the
Environment: … For Bogan, studying those small systems over
the past two decades has meant witnessing their decline.
Water law adjudication, already a complicated field, will only
become more so because of the climate crisis, extended
droughts, and increasing demand for groundwater in Nevada, the
Supreme Court was told last week. The court Friday held its
first meeting for the newly created commission to study the
adjudication of water law cases. Members of the commission
range from ranchers to conservationists to mining industry
representatives and scientists.
As drought conditions worsen across Northern California, the
Marin Municipal Water District is about to become the Bay
Area’s first major water agency to make the leap to mandatory
water restrictions. The utility is expected to adopt a plan
Tuesday that would require nearly 200,000 residents of southern
and central Marin County to limit outdoor watering to one day a
week as well as to stop washing their cars, refilling their
swimming pools and power-washing their homes, among other
things. Offenders could face fines of up to $250…
The release of last week’s Bureau of Reclamation 24-month study
felt like very bad news for the Colorado River (See Tony Davis
for details.). But a careful reading of the numbers, and an
understanding of the process through which they are developed,
suggests things are likely even worse than the top-line numbers
in the study. The problem: the assumptions underlying the study
do not fully capture the climate-change driven aridification of
the Colorado River Basin.
The Colorado River’s biggest reservoirs are likely to drop to
historically low levels later this year, prompting mandatory
conservation by some of the river’s heaviest users. The latest
Bureau of Reclamation reservoir projections, which take into
account river flows in a given year, show a likelihood that
Lake Mead on the Arizona-Nevada stateline will dip below the
critical threshold of 1,075 feet in elevation in May and remain
below that level for the foreseeable future. A first-ever
official shortage declaration from the Department of the
Interior is almost certain later this year.
California has entered another drought. But depending on who
you ask, the last one may have never really ended. Some
researchers believe the region is actually more than two
decades into an emerging “megadrought” — a hydrological event
that is on par with the worst dry spells of the past
millennium. Except this time, they say, human-caused climate
change is driving its severity — and will make it that much
harder to climb back out of.
No country is immune from water scarcity issues — not even the
world’s wealthiest country, the United States. The southwestern
states, in particular, have faced frequent and ongoing droughts
over the past two decades, and traditional water supplies are
failing. … Our existing water supplies must go
further, and the technology exists to make this happen — by
turning wastewater into drinking water.
Southern California, like most of the West, is in the middle of
a record dry season. To combat it and keep the metropolitan
area well-watered, they’re relying more heavily on the Colorado
River, with water pumped directly from the south end of Lake
Havasu. Last Wednesday, the Metropolitan Water District began
pumping from Lake Havasu at full capacity for the first time in
years, drawing water from the Whitsett Intake Pumping Plant
located just north of the Parker Dam. The eight-pump flow is
equivalent to about 3,000 acre feet of water being pumped per
day, according to MWD Manager of Colorado River Resources Bill
Hasencamp.
The White House announced the intent to nominate several
officials to serve at the Department of the Interior, including
Tanya Trujillo as Assistant Secretary for Water and Science.
Trujillo is a water lawyer with more than 20 years of
experience working on complex natural resources management
issues and interstate and transboundary water agreements. She
most recently worked as a project director with the Colorado
River Sustainability Campaign. Before then, she served as the
Executive Director of the Colorado River Board of California.
The San Diego County Water Authority is no stranger to conflict
– virtually all of its dealings over the past decade have been
shaped by its feud with the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan
Water District of Southern California. Now that feud is fueling
fights within the agency itself.
The Colorado River is one of the most highly developed surface
water systems in the world, but demand for the river’s water
continues to exceed supply. University of Arizona geosciences
professor Connie Woodhouse discusses the impact of a warming
climate on the Colorado River. She is the featured speaker for
the annual College of Science lecture series April 15. Connie
Woodhouse spoke with Leslie Tolbert, Regent’s professor emerita
in Neuroscience at the University of Arizona.
Extreme drought conditions throughout the West are lowering
levels in the crucial water reservoir, Lake Mead. Scars of long
years of low precipitation are hard to go unnoticed at Lake
Mead, and the hot, dry summers have been felt for the last
several years in Arizona. 2020 was especially dry, with little
monsoon. Now, the West is in uncharted territory. Lake Mead is
projected to drop by several feet this year, from elevation
1,083 to about 1,068, according to officials with the Central
Arizona Project. The lake is hovering around 39 percent of its
full capacity.
[T]he 800 to 900 people in Tohatchi, and another 600 to 800 in
Mexican Springs, eight miles to the west, all depend on a
single well and single pump. If the pump running it fails,
or if the water level in it drops — both issues that have
troubled nearby Gallup this year — water will cut out for the
homes, the head-start center, the schools, the clinic, the
senior center, five churches, and the convenience store and gas
station. … [T]he Navajo Nation has waited more than a
century for pipes and water treatment plants that would bring
drinking water to all of its people while watching nearby
off-reservation cities and farms grow, swallowing up water from
the Colorado River Basin that the tribe has a claim to.
A desert city built on a reputation for excess and indulgence
wants to become a model for restraint and conservation with a
first-in-the-nation policy banning grass that nobody walks on.
Las Vegas-area water officials have spent two decades trying to
get people to replace thirsty greenery with desert plants, and
now they’re asking the Nevada Legislature to outlaw roughly 40%
of the turf that’s left. The Southern Nevada Water Authority
estimates there are almost 8 square miles (21 square
kilometers) of “nonfunctional turf” in the metro area — grass
that no one ever walks on or otherwise uses in street medians,
housing developments and office parks.
The state is slipping further into more serious levels of
drought as it enters the second year for dry conditions and the
records the third driest rainy season on record. The US
Drought Monitor has downgraded areas in far Northern
California, the Central Coast, and Southern California to
reflect recent drought data. The top level “Exceptional”
(D4) drought remains at 5% in the Owens Valley and Mohave
Desert. Extreme (D3) drought now covers 35% of the state, an
increase from 32% last week. Most of the direct impacts
from various stages of more severe drought impact agriculture
and grazing areas. Many areas have only seen 50% of normal rain
or less. Areas that receive snow have seen well below average
snowpack levels.
Lack of monsoon rainfall last summer and spotty snowfall this
winter combined to worsen the Western drought dramatically in
the past year, and spring snowmelt won’t bring much relief.
Critical April 1 measurements of snow accumulations from
mountain ranges across the region show that most streams and
rivers will once again flow well below average levels this
year, stressing ecosystems and farms and depleting key
reservoirs that are already at dangerously low levels. As
the climate warms, it’s likely that drought conditions will
worsen and persist across much of the West. Dry spells between
downpours and blizzards are getting longer, and snowpack in the
mountains is starting to melt during winter, new research
shows.
Scientists have been predicting for years that the Colorado
River would continue to deplete due to global warming and
increased water demands, but according to new studies it’s
looking worse than they thought. That worries rancher Marsha
Daughenbaugh, 68, of Steamboat Springs, who relies on the water
from the Colorado River to grow feed for her cattle.
… Recent reports show that the river’s water flows were
down 20% in 2000 and by 2050 that number is estimated to more
than double.
Rainstorms grew more erratic and droughts much longer across
most of the U.S. West over the past half-century as climate
change warmed the planet, according to a sweeping government
study released Tuesday that concludes the situation is
worsening. The most dramatic changes were recorded in the
desert Southwest, where the average dry period between
rainstorms grew from about 30 days in the 1970s to 45 days
between storms now, said Joel Biederman, a research hydrologist
with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Southwest Watershed
Research Center in Tucson, Arizona.
Our two-day Water 101 Workshop begins on Earth Day,
when you can gain a deeper understanding of
California’s most precious natural resource. One of our
most popular events, the once-a-year workshop will be held as
an engaging online event on the afternoons of Thursday, April
22 and Friday, April 23. California’s water basics will be
covered by some of the state’s leading policy and legal
experts, including the history, geography, legal and political
facets of water in the state, as well a look at hot topics and
current issues of concern.
The Colorado River Indian Tribes will receive $209,000 for
irrigation canal projects, Congressman Paul Gosar announced
Tuesday. The federal funds were awarded by the U.S. Department
of the Interior to help CRIT pay for canal lining. The project
is intended to help stop water seepage from the canal. CRIT
relies on the Colorado River as its primary source of water,
and water conserved with help the Tribes meet existing demand
during times of drought, Gosar said. The project will line
nearly 4,000 feet of the earthen canal with a membrane covered
in sprayed concrete. The stretch of canal has been identified
as having the most significant seepage rate of all 232 miles of
canals in the Colorado River Irrigation Project, according to
the Bureau of Reclamation.
Las Vegas water officials want state lawmakers to require the
removal of thirsty grass landscaping that isn’t used for
recreation. Southern Nevada Water Authority lobbyist Andy
Belanger told lawmakers Monday that climate change and growth
in the Las Vegas area would require communities to take more
significant measures to conserve water. The agency estimates
that more than 5,000 acres of “nonfunctional turf” — grass not
used for recreational activities like golf, youth sports or
dog-walking — is spread throughout the region.
More snow is melting during winter across the West, a
concerning trend that could impact everything from ski
conditions to fire danger and agriculture, according to a new
CU Boulder analysis of 40 years of data. Researchers found
that since the late 1970s, winter’s boundary with spring has
been slowly disappearing, with one-third of 1,065 snow
measurement stations from the Mexican border to the Alaskan
Arctic recording increasing winter snowmelt…. Their new
findings, published in Nature Climate Change, have important
implications for water resource planning…
Unrelenting drought and years of rising temperatures due to
climate change are pushing the long-overallocated Colorado
River into new territory, setting the stage for the largest
mandatory water cutbacks to date. Lake Mead, the
biggest reservoir on the river, has declined
dramatically over the past two decades and now stands at just
40% of its full capacity. This summer, it’s projected to fall
to the lowest levels since it was filled in the 1930s following
the construction of Hoover Dam. The reservoir near Las
Vegas is approaching a threshold that is expected to
trigger a first-ever shortage declaration by the federal
government for next year, leading to substantial cuts in water
deliveries to Arizona, Nevada and Mexico.
Rural water users are panicking over a proposal to create a
market for the sale and purchase of water rights in Nevada,
unconvinced by arguments that the concept would encourage
conservation. Lawmakers on Monday weighed whether so-called
“water banking” would be preferable to prevailing water law
doctrines that govern surface and groundwater rights disputes
in the driest state in the U.S. A legislative hearing about two
proposals to allow water rights holders to sell their
entitlements pitted state water bureaucrats against a coalition
of farmers, conservationists and rural officials.
The idea of cloud seeding and weather modification has been
around since 1940. There were federally funded programs in
the 1960s—one named Project Skywater that ultimately
had mixed results. In the 1970s and 1980s, the US government
began experimenting on how weather modification could be used
as a war tool. But outside of ski resorts like Vail, where the
technology is used to help increase snow during snowstorms,
interest in cloud seeding largely dropped off.
… According to the North American Weather
Modification Council, there are currently several projects
being run in California, Wyoming, Colorado, Texas, Utah, among
other states with a project here or there.
It was in 2016 that the state of California declared a
four-year drought had finally come to an end. Now, in 2021, it
could be entering another very dry season. It is in the winter
season that folks on the West Coast welcome dreary days packed
with cloud and rain. California usually sees the most rain and
snow in the month of February. This year, however, was
different: It was quite dry all of the winter season, and we
can blame La Niña for this pattern. … Thirty per cent of
California’s water supply comes from the snowpack in the Sierra
Nevada mountain ranges and only 57 per cent of normal
precipitation has fallen this season. This, coupled with lower
than average snowpack for 2020 as well, could spell trouble
down the road when it comes to water supply.
The blizzard that dumped snow along the Front Range in March
helped Colorado nearly reach its average snowpack for the
winter, federal data shows. But last year’s historically dry
weather means that streams are likely to run lower than normal,
potentially restricting the amount of water some consumers can
use, experts said… Areas east of the Continental Divide
had above average snowpack, but the Colorado River Basin on the
west was below average….
A federal judge has thrown out a legal action from multiple
environmental organizations seeking to halt the expansion of a
key Denver Water storage facility, citing no legal authority to
address the challenge. … The expansion of Gross Reservoir in
Boulder County is intended to provide additional water storage
and safeguard against future shortfalls during droughts. The
utility currently serves customers in Denver, Jefferson,
Arapahoe, Douglas and Adams counties. In July 2020, the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission gave its approval for
the design and construction of the reservoir’s expansion. The
project would add 77,000 acre-feet of water storage and 131
feet to the dam’s height for the utility’s “North System” of
water delivery.
State officials are putting farmers in south-central Arizona on
notice that the continuing drought means a “substantial cut” in
deliveries of Colorado River water is expected next year. A
joint statement issued Friday by the state Department of Water
Resources and the Central Arizona Project said an expected
shortage declaration “will result in a substantial cut to
Arizona’s share of the river, with reductions falling largely
to central Arizona agricultural users.” The Central Arizona
Project is an aqueduct system that delivers Colorado River
water to users in central Arizona and southern Arizona,
including farmers, cities and tribes.
When it comes to water in the West, a lot of it is visible.
Snow stacks up high in the mountains then eventually melts and
flows down into valleys. It’s easy to see how heavy rains and
rushing rivers translate into an abundance of available water.
But another important factor of water availability is much
harder to see. Beneath the surface, the amount of moisture
held in the ground can play a big role in how much water makes
it down to rivers and reservoirs – and eventually into the
pipes that feed homes and businesses. Elise Osenga is a
community science manager for the Aspen Global Change Institute
– a nonprofit focused on expanding scientific understanding of
climate change.
Local water providers say the current drought is one of the
worst in Colorado history. Mesa County ranges from extreme
drought to exceptional drought in areas and it doesn’t appear
to be improving anytime soon. Below average spring runoff is
anticipated by local water providers as watersheds are working
to be replenished after last year’s drought. … The wildfires
in the Colorado River basin last summer have scarred
significant portions of the Colorado River which may result in
debris, ash, and dense mud flowing into the Colorado River
watershed, which will impact water quality for many water
entities in Mesa County.
The Fort Yuma-Quechan Indian Tribe is situated at a nexus in
the Colorado River Basin. That’s true in a geographic sense.
The tribe’s reservation overlays the Arizona-California border
near Yuma, Arizona. The two states are heavily reliant on water
from the Colorado River. The reservation also abuts the
U.S.-Mexico border where the river flows into Mexico for use in
cities and on farms. One of the river’s largest irrigation
projects, the All-American Canal, was dug through the tribe’s
land, and flows from the reservation’s northeastern boundary to
its far southwestern corner, on its way to irrigate crops in
California’s Imperial Valley. The confluence of the Colorado
River and one of its historically important tributaries, the
Gila River, is nearby.
About 40 million Americans in the West and Southwest rely on
the Colorado River for drinking water, as do the region’s
massive agriculture and recreation industries. Water has been
the most valuable commodity in the West since the time of the
pioneers. It became a source of modern political power when the
water of the Colorado River was divvied up among seven Western
States in the 1920s — the Jack Nicholson movie “Chinatown”
dramatized California’s legendary water battles. Today, a
rapidly shrinking Colorado River is forced to support
relentless development in California and across the West — very
thirsty development.
Despite the recent history-making blizzard on Colorado’s Front
Range, statewide snowpack sits at 92 percent of average as of
March 19, down from 105 percent of average at the end of
February, according to the Natural Resources Conservation
Service. Just two river basins, the Arkansas and the Rio
Grande, are registering above average at 101 percent and 106
percent respectively. Among the driest are the Gunnison Basin,
at 86 percent of average, and the San Juan/Dolores, at 83
percent, both in the southwestern part of the state.
Utah’s winter sports industry may claim the greatest snow on
Earth, but for skiers and water watchers alike, there is hardly
ever enough powder. For nearly 50 years, the second-driest
state in the nation has been giving natural winter storms an
engineered boost to help deepen its snowpack through a program
largely funded by state taxpayers, local governments and water
conservancy districts. More recently, the states that rely on
water from the lower Colorado River — California, Arizona and
Nevada — have been paying for additional cloud seeding in Utah.
Many of the wetlands in the western United States have
disappeared since the 1700s. California has lost an astonishing
90 percent of its wetlands, which includes streamsides, wet
meadows and ponds. In Nevada, Idaho and Colorado, more than 50
percent of wetlands have vanished. Precious wet habitats now
make up just 2 percent of the arid West — and those remaining
wet places are struggling. Nearly half of U.S. streams are in
poor condition, unable to fully sustain wildlife and people,
says Jeremy Maestas, a sagebrush ecosystem specialist with the
NRCS who organized that workshop on Wilde’s ranch in 2016. As
communities in the American West face increasing water
shortages, more frequent and larger wildfires and unpredictable
floods, restoring ailing waterways is becoming a necessity.
Water scarcity is often understood as a problem for regions
experiencing drought, but a new study from Cornell and Tufts
universities finds that not only can localized water shortages
impact the global economy, but changes in global demand send
positive and negative ripple effects to water basins across the
globe. … [I]n the lower Colorado River basin, the worst
economic outcomes arise from limited groundwater availability
and high population growth, but that high population growth can
also prove beneficial under some climatic scenarios.
Arizona tribal officials told a Senate committee Wednesday that
the federal government can help address a crisis with water
infrastructure on their lands through more funding, and less
meddling. Navajo Department of Water Resources Director Jason
John and Colorado River Indian Tribes Chairwoman Amelia Flores
made the comments during a Senate Indian Affairs Committee
hearing on water infrastructure for Native communities. Leaders
of Oregon and Alaska tribes also testified at the
hearing.
Meager anticipated snowmelt runoff is expected to mean another
challenging year for maintaining even below-optimal levels of
flows in the Colorado River downstream of the Palisade area for
the benefit of endangered fish. … What’s referred to as
the 15-Mile Reach of the river between the Palisade area and
the Gunnison River confluence is of particular concern for the
Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program, which
focuses on four endangered fish. The stretch is primarily used
by two of the fish — the razorback sucker and Colorado
pikeminnow. But it’s also used by a third, the bonytail. And a
fourth, the humpback chub, which favors downstream stretches
such as Westwater Canyon, indirectly benefits from efforts to
bolster flows in the 15-Mile Reach.
One of the most critical negotiations for Utah’s future is
coming at a time when Utah’s delegations in Washington D.C. may
be less influential than every other party at the table. The
Colorado River Compact, hammered out in 1922 with few
amendments over the years, expires in 2026. Every other state
in the compact other than Utah has a majority Democratic or
split delegation in Washington. Those states? Colorado, New
Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California.
A showdown is looming on the Colorado River. The river’s
existing management guidelines are set to expire in 2026. The
states that draw water from it are about to undertake a new
round of negotiations over the river’s future, while it’s
facing worsening dry conditions due in part to rising
temperatures. That means everyone with an interest in the
river’s future — tribes, environmentalists, developers,
business groups, recreation advocates — is hoping a new round
of talks will bring certainty to existing water supplies and
demands.
With three-quarters of the US west gripped by a seemingly
ceaseless drought, several states are increasingly embracing a
drastic intervention – the modification of the weather to spur
more rainfall. … Cloud seeding experiments have taken
place since the 1940s but until recently there was little
certainty the method had any positive impact.
But research last year managed to pinpoint snowfall
that “unambiguously” came from cloud seeding … Others are now
looking to join in, including the “four corners” states – Utah,
Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico – that have been ravaged by
the most extreme version of the latest drought.
Much of the U.S. West is facing the driest spring in seven
years, setting up a climate disaster that could strangle
agriculture, fuel deadly wildfires and even hurt power
production. Across 11 western states, drought has captured
about 75% of the land, and covers more than 44% of the
contiguous U.S., the U.S. Drought Monitor said. While
drought isn’t new to the West, where millions of people live,
grow crops and raise livestock in desert conditions that
require massive amounts of water, global warming is
exacerbating the problem — shrinking snowpack in the Rocky
Mountains and extending the fire season on the West Coast.
A Nevada town founded a century ago by pioneers lured to the
West by the promise of free land and cheap water in the desert
is trying to block the U.S. government from renovating a
115-year-old earthen irrigation canal with a plan that would
eliminate leaking water that local residents long have used to
fill their own domestic wells. A federal judge denied the town
of Fernley’s bid last year to delay plans to line parts of the
Truckee Canal with concrete to make it safer after it burst and
flooded nearly 600 homes in 2008.
The Bureau of Reclamation is awarding $42.4 million in grants
to 55 projects throughout 13 states. These projects will
improve the water reliability for these communities by using
water more efficiently and power efficiency improvements that
water supply reliability and generate more hydropower…. In
California, near the Arizona border, the Bard Water District
will receive $1.1 million to complete a canal lining and piping
project. The project is expected to result in annual water
savings of 701 acre-feet, which will remain in the Colorado
River system for other uses.
The Division of Boating and Waterways (DBW) will be accepting
grant applications for quagga and zebra mussel infestation
prevention programs from March 22 through April 30,
2021. All applications must be received by 5 p.m. on
Friday, April 30, 2021. … California water body
authorities have recognized the westward spread of mussel
infestation via the Colorado River System and the potential
harm to state waterways should lakes and reservoirs become
invaded. To help prevent California waterways from infestation,
DBW provides grants to entities that own or manage any aspect
of water in a reservoir that is open for public recreation and
is mussel-free.
After a record dry summer and fall — and with winter snowpack
currently at 70% of normal levels — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox
signed an emergency order Wednesday declaring a state of
emergency due to drought conditions. The move comes after a
recommendation from the state’s Drought Review and Reporting
Committee and opens the door for drought-affected communities
and agricultural producers to potentially access state or
federal emergency funds and resources, according to a news
release. Cox said Wednesday that state leaders have been
“monitoring drought conditions carefully and had hoped to see
significant improvement from winter storms.”
The shadow of a controversial plan to pipe groundwater from
rural Nevada to Las Vegas looms as state lawmakers weigh two
proposals to protect groves of swamp cedar trees considered
sacred on Monday. Until last year when the Southern Nevada
Water Authority decided to “indefinitely defer” its pursuit of
permits, the trees were caught in the crossfire of fights over
development and conservation.
Western water managers are contending with the growing threat
of shortages. Flow has dwindled on major water systems like the
Rio Grande and the Colorado River, which each supply water to
millions of people. With temperatures steadily rising, cloud
seeding poses one attractive solution.
Grain by grain, sandbars are ecologically important to the
Colorado River system for humans and wildlife, say scientists.
How sand, silt and clay move along and become deposited within
the river corridor in the Grand Canyon National Park,
downstream from Glen Canyon Dam, has become an important
question to a number of government agencies as well as to
Native American tribes. The answer impacts the entire Colorado
River ecosystem and will help scientists better understand how
the Colorado River system works.
As Colorado digs out from the recent blizzard, each heavy
shovel full of snow proves the storm brought plenty of
moisture. But is it enough to free the state from its drought
conditions? Russ Schumacher, the Colorado state
climatologist, said the answer largely depends on location. …
Colorado’s drought conditions had improved ahead of the storm.
After record dry weather over the summer and fall, snowpack
levels had inched toward normal throughout the winter, but
western Colorado continued to miss out on the snowfall.
The water flow in the Grand Canyon is temporarily changing and
it could reveal some surprises, geologists said. The U.S.
Geological Survey said Sunday that an 11-day “spring
disturbance” flow will start Monday and will drop water levels
in parts of the Grand Canyon. … While dam maintenance
may not seem exciting, the drop in water could reveal parts of
the Colorado riverbed that hasn’t been seen in decades, USGS
said. It could also impact in the Colorado River
ecosystem. The change in water levels will also
mimic what the Colorado River was like before the dam was
built, USGS said.
Scientists and boatmen with the United States Geological Survey
are preparing for a busy week on the Colorado River as
engineers at Glen Canyon Dam prepare to reduce the water
flowing out of Lake Powell substantially. In order to conduct
maintenance on the concrete apron downstream of the dam,
engineers will be limiting the water that runs through the
dam’s turbines starting Monday and continuing through the rest
of the week.
Sometime in the middle of next year, if Northern Water gets its
way, the bulldozers will start piling earth and rock 25 stories
high to plug this dry basin southwest of Loveland
forever. Four miles to the south, they’ll build another
dam to keep their newly-made bathtub from leaking out the back
toward Lyons. Drill crews will bore a massive pipeline through
the hogback making up the east edge of the bathtub, in order to
feed Carter Lake a few hundred yards to the east. They’ll move
a power line. Help build a surrounding open space park. Upgrade
a sewage plant in Fraser. Four years later, they’ll close dam
gates reinforced to hold back 29 billion gallons of life-giving
water.
The Western US is in the midst of yet another dangerous dry
spell. The drought has been building over the past year, and
since November, a greater stretch of the West has been in the
most severe category of drought than at any time in the 20
years that the National Drought Mitigation Center has been
keeping records. … Ryan Jensen saw the impacts of
California’s last major drought firsthand while working for the
Community Water Center in the San Joaquin Valley. When
residential wells ran dry, students had to shower in their
school locker rooms. To keep toilets running, some rural
households relied on hoses slung over fences from their
neighbors.
Mark your calendars now for our virtual Lower Colorado
River Tour on May 20 to learn about the important role the
river’s water plays in the three Lower Basin states of Nevada,
Arizona and California, and how it helps to sustain their
cities, wildlife areas and farms. Registration is coming
soon! This virtual journey will cover a stretch of
the Colorado River from Hoover Dam and its reservoir Lake
Mead, the nation’s tallest concrete dam and largest reservoir
respectively, down to the U.S./Mexico border and up to the
Salton Sea.
The Grand Canyon Protection Act was recently introduced by U.S.
Rep. Raύl Grijalva and passed in the House and has been
introduced in the Senate by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. The bills will
permanently protect about 1 million acres of public lands
surrounding Grand Canyon from the harmful and lasting damage of
new uranium mining. … This legislation is critical
to stopping the threats that mining poses to water quality and
quantity, unique habitats and wildlife pathways, and to sacred
places. -Written by Sandy Bahr, director for Sierra
Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter, and Amber Wilson
Reimondo, Energy Program director with Grand Canyon
Trust.
As persistent drought and climate change threaten the Colorado
River, several states that rely on the water acknowledge they
likely won’t get what they were promised a century ago. But not
Utah. Republican lawmakers approved an entity that could push
for more of Utah’s share of water as seven Western states
prepare to negotiate how to sustain a river serving 40 million
people. Critics say the legislation, which the governor still
must sign, could strengthen Utah’s effort to complete a
billion-dollar pipeline from a dwindling reservoir that’s a key
indicator of the river’s health.
