As watersheds on the Colorado River approach dangerously low levels, the federal government has given watershed states until Jan. 31 to negotiate major water cuts and avert a possible supply collapse.
At a conference in Las Vegas, federal officials told water managers in the seven states that depend on the river that next year they will evaluate immediate options to protect water levels in depleted reservoirs and that the region must be prepared for the river become permanent. provide less water due to climate change.
“The hotter, drier conditions we are facing today are not temporary. Climate change is here today and it has made it likely that we will continue to experience conditions like these, if not worse, in the future,” said Camille Calimlim Touton, Commissioner for Remediation.
“The basin is experiencing the worst drought in 1,200 years and there is no relief in sight. And maybe it will be like this in the future” Touton said.
Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the two largest reservoirs in the country, are now nearly three-quarters empty and water levels are expected to continue to drop. The latest government estimates show that there is a risk that Lake Mead could reach a “dead basin” in 2025, where the river will no longer flow past the Hoover Dam and cut off water from California, Arizona and Mexico.
This grim backdrop has made the search for solutions urgent as state, water utility, tribal and federal officials consider options for water cuts on an unprecedented scale.
At Friday’s conference, Touton said, “I can feel the fear, the uncertainty in this space and in the basin as we look at the flow and hydrology we’re dealing with.”
Touton noted that a century-old agreement, the 1922 Colorado River Compact, divided water between states, and said there was now an opportunity to build a “new framework for cooperation.”
“We are acting now to protect the Colorado River system and the future of America’s toughest river,” he said.
The federal government has begun reviewing existing regulations to address the bottlenecks. Federal dam managers have also begun reducing the amount of water they release from Glen Canyon Dam over the next five months to raise Lake Powell levels until spring runoff arrives. And they warned that the amount of water they release from the dam may need to be further reduced, which would reduce downstream flow and accelerate Lake Mead’s decline.
The Bureau of Reclamation has initiated an accelerated environmental review process that will include alternatives to revising the current bottleneck management rules for the river. As part of the process, the federal government has asked water managers in the region to develop a consensus agreement to meet a goal of reducing water use from 2 million to 4 million acre feet per year, a reduction of about 15 % to 30%.
“The challenge we have with this system is that it was built in the last century and so the way we’re working for this hydrology isn’t working,” Touton said. “Hydrology really determines what we need.”
Another alternative would be for the Home Secretary to exercise federal authority to change reservoir operations, which could be in addition to regional water-saving deals if the reductions prove insufficient.
“Hopefully a consensus alternative will emerge from the pool before the end of January,” Touton said. “Let’s do it together.”
The Colorado River serves more than 40 million people in cities from Denver to San Diego and farmlands from Wyoming to the US-Mexico border. The river has a long history of severe congestion, and its flows have reduced dramatically since 2000 during the current mega-drought, which research says has been exacerbated by global warming.
“The ongoing drought plaguing the West is one of the greatest challenges facing the United States and Mexico and all of our communities,” said Assistant Secretary of the Interior Tommy Beaudreau.
“The growing drought crisis is being driven by the impacts of climate change, including a radical shift in hydrology. And that’s just the stark reality,” Beaudreau said. “We all care deeply about the flow and finding our way through this new reality. Everyone here recognizes the gravity of this moment.”
Over the past six months, federal officials have urged water managers in seven states — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona and California — to draw up plans for major cuts. But negotiations have proved difficult, and promises of voluntary cuts fall well short of the federal government’s target.
To date, four California water districts have proposed reducing water use by up to 400,000 acre-feet per year. This would represent about 9 percent of the state’s total water allotment from the river over the next four years through 2026.
In return, the Biden administration agreed to allocate $250 million for projects on the shrinking Salton Sea to expedite work on wetlands and dust control projects. The federal government is also offering to pay farmers and others who agree to give up some of their water, drawing on $4 billion set aside under the Inflation Reduction Act for drought-fighting measures.
The Bureau of Reclamation has received nearly three dozen proposals from farmers, tribes, cities and water districts in Arizona and California to reduce water use in exchange for payments, Touton said. He said agency officials plan to complete the review of those proposals early next year.
Meanwhile, the latest federal projections show that “we need to do much more to address current risks,” said Tanya Trujillo, assistant secretary for water and science in the Interior Department. “We have a shared responsibility to continue to take additional steps to protect the system.”
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) said if the region doesn’t negotiate a settlement and the federal government uses its powers to impose cuts, it could lead to disruptive problems and litigation.
“I think it’s best for everyone if the federal government doesn’t make these tough decisions,” Kelly said. “We all want water users to take the lead here.”
Kelly said the river crisis “won’t be such a big math problem” if the region works together on plans for reductions. She pointed out that agriculture uses about 80% of water, “so agriculture is the big knob that we can turn.”
Kelly also said it’s time to increase long-term supply by tackling water enrichment projects “once dismissed as overly ambitious, such as large-scale desalination plants and importing water from other reservoirs.” She said one promising proposal would be to build one or more large-scale desalination plants in Mexico to tap the Sea of Cortez, a project Arizona officials have been discussing with their Mexican counterparts.
Some water managers and others said they believed the seven states and the federal government were not acting fast enough.
“Circumstances on the ground are outpacing the pace of discussions and negotiations,” said John Entsminger, chief executive officer of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. He She said River law is complicated and politics is complicated, but “science and math are not complicated” and require urgent action.
Jason Robison, a law professor at the University of Wyoming, said the possibility of reaching a deadpool should prompt renewed control over the management and use of the river. He noted that if the reservoir runs dry, it would mean “no water will flow through the Grand Canyon except that which enters through the tributaries.”
“Imagine a grand sight that every American should see without the Colorado River being just a trickle of what it is. If that’s not a wake-up call, I don’t know what is,” Robison said.
“Why don’t we recognize water rights for the Grand Canyon ecosystem? Why don’t we operate Glen Canyon Dam as a flood control facility? Why don’t we clean up the sediment behind Lake Powell and designate Glen Canyon National Park?” Robison said. “With all these changes, the changes in values, there has to be something that creates a spark, like a dead pool and like the Colorado River not flowing through the Grand Canyon. That seems to be what our species needs to respond to.” .
Falling water levels in Lake Powell have prompted some conservationists to renew calls for the federal government to drain the reservoir and close Glen Canyon Dam. Gary Wockner of the Save The Colorado group said the federal government was “getting ready to kick the can down the street instead of solving the problems on the river.”
Wockner said a far better approach would be to dump the remaining water into Lake Powell and store it downstream in Lake Mead.
In written comments to the federal government, Wockner said this kind of “one-tank” solution would be cheaper, more environmentally friendly, and “less politically corrosive than trying to quickly drain a few million acres of farms to temporarily save the Lake Powell.” “
