When Don Cox was looking for a place to open a farm in the 1950s, he bet on California’s Imperial Valley.
It was a desert region with priority rights to water, which meant it was difficult to deny it access to that resource.
“The right to water was very, very important to him,” said his grandson, Thomas Cox, who farms in the valley.
I was right. Today, Imperial Valley, which supplies much of the vegetables and beef the U.S. consumes in the winter, is one of the regions with the greatest access to the Colorado River, supplying many of the U.S. farms and cities. and that has less and less water.
In times of scarcity, Arizona and Nevada must first reduce their consumption.
But even California, the most populous state in the country, with 39 million inhabitants, could be forced to make cuts in the coming years given the dangerously low level of rivers and reservoirs due to the heat. If the river dried up completely, Southern California would be left without a third of the water it consumes and it would be impossible to cultivate large tracts of land.
“Without that water, Imperial Valley stops working,” said JB Hamby, a board member in the Imperial Irrigation District, who owns much of the Colorado River’s water.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of a series on the 100th anniversary of the historic “Colorado Compact”, a 1922 agreement regulating the use of the waters of the Colorado River. The series is a collaboration between Associated Press, The Colorado Sun, The Albuquerque Journal, The Salt Lake Tribune, The Arizona Daily Star and The Nevada Independent, exploring river pressures in 2022.
A century ago, California and six other states (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming) decided to share water. They created two basins and determined how much water each would receive. After a combination of rules, laws and lawsuits, California has gotten more water and is the latest to cut back on times of scarcity.
From the beginning there was a lot of concern and frustration about California’s use of the river. Other Western states feared California would claim all water before their populations grew. It was about finding a fair balance, one that protected California’s supply and ensured that other states also received water.
California, on the other hand, benefited from the national government’s construction of the Hoover Dam to control the flow of the river.
In 2026, a deadline expires for states to renegotiate water use in times of drought and protect the two main basins, those of Lakes Mead and Powell. The Bureau of Water Management (Bureau of Reclamation), for its part, has required states to reduce water consumption by between 15% and 30% to avoid a crisis. They have not done so within the deadline, which expired in August, but negotiations continue.
All eyes are on California and the two districts with the most water rights, the Imperial Irrigation District and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. They want to see if they give up some of their rights. Both said they were willing to use less water or pay others to do so.
But it is not clear what concessions they would be willing to make.
The river is the only source of water for the Imperial Sprinkler District, which produces broccoli, onions, carrots and other winter vegetables, as well as alfalfa and other livestock feed. The groundwater in the region, near Arizona and Mexico, is unusable and has no access to state water.
The district historically had access to more water than Arizona or Nevada, although it had given up some rights in exchange for money from cities like San Diego and Los Angeles. In 2019, his council rejected a drought emergency plan signed by Arizona, Nevada and California.
This time, district authorities say they would be willing not to plant crops on certain land to save water. It would be a temporary, emergency measure. But no one said how much water they would stop consuming.
State officials want Congress to approve $ 4 billion to pay the district so its farmers use less water.
Farmers are not very involved in district negotiations and are trying to organize themselves to avoid being forced to do things they do not approve of. Many farmers have already installed drip irrigation equipment that uses less water and would be willing to take other measures to reduce their water consumption if you pay for it.
Cox is considering planting less than usual this fall as it will receive less water.
“With so much uncertainty about water, there will also be uncertainty about food supplies,” he said.
Farmers aren’t the only ones who rely on the Imperial Irrigation District’s water.
Unused water from the farms supplies the Salton Sea, a body of water created by the Colorado River overflow in the early 1900s. It now dries quickly, exposing nearby communities to toxic dust and killing wildlife habitat. birds and fish.
“It’s a body of water surrounded by communities that have been marginalized for so long that they don’t have the infrastructure or the ability to protect themselves from climate change. They have less water and that adds to the toxic dust, ”said Silvia Paz, executive director of the Coachella Valley Alliance, an organization struggling to improve the region’s economy and health.
The Metropolitan Water District is Colorado’s largest water user after Imperial. The river supplies a third of the water consumed by the district and is vital for half of the state’s population. Los Angeles County, the largest county in the country, relies on river water.
It can store some of Lake Mead’s unused water, which California officials say has helped prevent a crisis in recent years. This year, however, it could try to use that water if needed, which would certainly cause friction with other basin states.
The district also receives water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta, the state’s main water source. But the delta is suffering from drought and the state has only approved 5% of the required supply this year.
The district is investing billions of dollars in a water recycling facility and encourages people to use less water in their gardens.
Looking ahead, both climate change and politics influence the debate on how to respond to current challenges.
“We want reliability and predictability,” said Michael Cohen, a Colorado River expert at the Pacific Institute. “What we don’t want is Arizona complaining that Phoenix and Tucson are drying up, while California isn’t reducing a drop of water it consumes.”
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Associated Press coverage of water and environmental news is supported by the Walton Family Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for the content.
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