The water level in Lake Powell has fallen about a foot this year and stands 33 feet above the threshold where Glen Canyon Dam could no longer produce power. The same issues could resurface next year if officials look to the New Mexico reservoir as an emergency supply for downstream users. Updated: Apr 26, 2023 / 01:55 PM PDT. Youve got two drivers exacerbating the problem. The compact contains a fail-safe mechanism if the river runs too low. He remains unidentified. Such an account would effectively leave Colorado buying back its own water or other states potentially buying it on an open market and possibly undermine the states authority to control the river, an erosion of the century-long sway of the compact. More frustrating for those trying to solve the Wests dire water problems, if water runs out, because of those generous rights granted a century ago, the metropolises will have to turn off their taps before the old farms. Today, they are at 26%. In the winter, 90% of vegetables consumed in both the US and Canada are grown with Colorado River water. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Since leaving government, Mr. Eklund has become WAMs legal counsel and public face. That a lush hay farm had once been here seemed hard to believe. Known as a compact call, such an event could trigger draconian, never-before-seen restrictions on water use in cities like Denver, while obligating them to search for alternative, higher-priced sources of water. The New Deal brings Colorado River water to a desert. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Colorado River Water Users Convening Amid Crisis Concerns - US News California split from the six states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming on Tuesday in the face of a U.S. government deadline to negotiate their own supply cuts or face possible mandatory cutbacks by the federal government. Almonds and Walnuts According to a UNESCO Institute for Water Education study, shelled almonds and walnuts were among the top three most water-intensive foods. Andrew Leimgruber grows alfalfa and vegetables on his family's farm in the Imperial Valley. WAM has become one of the largest landholders in the Grand Valley, a high-mountain desert on the Western Slope of the Rockies, 250 miles west of Denver. The Central Arizona Project, a 336-mile-long water delivery system, brings water from the Colorado River to Arizona's . Its not necessarily a new concept in parts of Southern California, farmers have been paid for more than a decade to fallow land. It powers agricultural land and urban areas, serving roughly 1 in 10 Americans. The reality is we have an overallocated river, said Jeffrey Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the largest water supplier in the country. Click here to see how reuse and recycling could fit in to the West's strategy to save the Colorado River. What top five states have rivers? Flows during the past 23-year period are the lowest in the past 120 years and (among) the lowest in more than 1,200 years, Bunk told the webinar audience. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) Colorado River tributaries in New Mexico bring water to the alfalfa fields in the Four Corners and the forested hills of the Gila wilderness in the southwestern part of the state. His great-grandfather came to the valley from Sweden in the 1920s. Theyd have to have a storage account of their own in a federal reservoir, and from my perspective thats a nonstarter, Mr. Mueller said. Theyre going to make big bucks off the water, and whos going to suffer? she said. KGNUs Alexis Kenyon spoke with Dr. Jack Schmidt the director of the Center of . LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - Lake Mead will be one foot higher by the end of the week after the release of water from Glen Canyon into the Colorado River. Lake Mead, seen here on April 3, has plummeted in recent years amid an epic drought.
The water fight over the shrinking Colorado River - BBC News But the largest water user, California, did not join them an impasse that suggests the wrangling over how to conserve the dwindling water supply that serves 40 million people will continue in coming months. "And there's not enough time to litigate these issues," added Hayes, a former top climate aide to President Joe Biden. Colorado River tributaries serve relatively small portions of northwest and southwest New Mexico. There is a myth about water in the Western United States, which is that there is not enough of it. LAS VEGAS (AP) Living with less water in the U.S. Southwest is the focus this week for state and federal water administrators, tribal officials, farmers, academics and business representatives meeting about the drought-stricken and overpromised Colorado River. If nothing changes, within a few years, Lake Mead would drop to a level called "dead pool" and water would stop flowing through Hoover Dam. And all the positives that water has provided for 100 years in the state of Colorado are gone., Of course, not everyone has been displeased by the arrival of hedge funds reportedly paying millions in cash for old farms. Beginning Monday . Going by established law, Leimgruber says, those latecomers would be cut off from Colorado River water completely before the Imperial Irrigation District gives up any of the water to which it's entitled. An earlier version of this story stated that the Imperial Irrigation District's allotment of Colorado River water is enough to cover all of its irrigated land with 5 inches of water. It lies below sea level, allowing water from the Colorado River to flow there by gravity alone. Lake Mead was at 100% capacity in mid-1999. . It has offered its own plan to conserve water. Thats the dilemma looking at how we can reduce demand with as soft a blow as possible, Hamman said. The proposal begins with a 400,000 acre-foot cut, as previously offered, and continues with additional reductions as the reservoir declines toward levels where power generation would be threatened. Dan Charles for NPR Updated: Apr 26, 2023 / 01:55 PM PDT. As of Wednesday morning, the surge of water released from the Glen Canyon Dam has reached Lake Mead, KTLA's sister station KLAS reports. As investor interest mounts, leaders of Southwestern states are gathering this month to decide the future of the Colorado River. Whats being done? Agriculture all over the West required the development of irrigation infrastructure, such as dams and ditches, Mr. Libecap said. At which point, if private entities like WAM had stores of water in Lake Powell ready to sell, they would suddenly be worth quite a bit more. Dan Charles for NPR The Imperial Valley is a place of jarring contrasts. Another dry year has left the watershed that supplies 40 million people in the Southwest parched. "The water of every natural stream, not heretofore appropriated, within the state of Colorado, is hereby declared to be the property of the public, and the same is dedicated to the use of the people of the state, subject to appropriation as hereinafter provided." Article 16. Sprinklers deliver vital Colorado River water to a field of celery in California's Imperial Valley. Use less waterevery drop counts! But from the perspective of other states even those cuts wouldnt be nearly enough. Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. The rain and snowstorms that battered California in January raised reservoir levels in the state and coated the Sierra Nevada mountains in snowpack that is 210 percent above normal for this time of year. According to Porter, some legal experts believe that the federal Bureau of Reclamation has the authority simply to order a reduction in water deliveries from reservoirs like Lake Mead to agricultural irrigation districts. This area gets less attention than California's Central Valley, the nation's leading producer of produce and nuts, which draws its water from rain and snow in the Sierra Mountains, or pumps it from shrinking underground aquifers. Ron DeSantis, finding no legal basis for allegations that the governor violated campaign finance laws with a shadow run for the White House, North Carolina's attorney general is urging lawmakers to adopt several crime prevention proposals to tackle gun violence, the opioid crisis and the state's backlog of sexual assault cases, The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation says the bodies of seven people have been discovered during the search for two missing teenagers. The Imperial Valley, by contrast, has only one source of water: the Colorado River, 80 miles to the east. Former U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Scotland on Monday for a short trip to visit his golf courses in the country and in Ireland. The bureau forecasts that for the first time, Lake Mead will operate in a Tier 2 shortage condition starting in 2023. Steve Benson returned to the family business, Benson Farms in Brawley, Calif., after a career in engineering and real estate. It will be baled into hay and fed to cattle such as those in the feedlot at the far end of the field. Colorado River expert John Fleck, a professor at the University of New Mexico, wrote that Californias plan gets to roughly the same place as the six-state plan at the most extreme reservoir levels, but the difference is timing waiting until water levels drop further at Lake Meads Hoover Dam.
Feds Will Cut States' Access to Colorado River Water For two years, the states have released additional water from at least three reservoirs including New Mexicos Navajo Reservoir to prop up Lake Powell levels. Meanwhile, bodies have surfaced as Lake Mead's shoreline recedes, including the corpse of a man who authorities say was shot, maybe in the 1970s, and stuffed in a barrel. "The river has a gun to everybody's heads, and it's in everybody's interest to try to work out this thing," says JB Hamby, a member of the irrigation district's board of directors. He saw a need for drastic conservation efforts to protect reservoirs from overuse and drought worsened by climate change, a situation that if left unchecked could threaten supply from the Hoover Dam to the city of Las Vegas or California. Thats not what water is meant to be.. It may feel like California is flush with water at the moment, after a winter of historic storms that replenished drought-starved lakes and left the .
Experimental water release to continue Lake Mead's improvement David Morris, the water utility spokesman for the city and county, said the Colorado River water has allowed the region to wean itself off of unsustainable groundwater pumping. (Anthony Jackson/The Albuquerque Journal via AP) The Associated Press. And crisis drives change.. That would be: Were basically going to put all the cuts on the major share of the economy. It's now more salty than the ocean, heavily contaminated with agricultural runoff, and shrinking.
Report: Colorado's farm water use exceeds national average, despite Although California was deluged for weeks from late in December by seven atmospheric rivers that dumped up to 30 inches (76 cm) of rain over some areas, little of that reached the Colorado River basin. Otherwise, the state has to invest in the whole thing and pay the opportunity cost of just having that water sitting there.. Andy Mueller, general manager of the Colorado River District, is skeptical. he says. Camille Touton, bureau commissioner, tempered a warning during the water webinars about federal intervention she called it moving forward on the initiation of administrative actions with a vow to find a collective solution to the challenges that we face today.. However, the same water could also flow where water often flows: toward the highest bidder. Later, as the states negotiator on the Colorado River, he helped make it an official goal of the compact states. By design, the five-year process is ponderous and built to be consensus-driven, with an eye toward shared sacrifice. That would be a disaster. James Eklund, legal counsel for Water Asset Management, favors a market-driven approach to water distribution in the West. Mr. If this water is to be sold to anyone outside the Grand Valley, then its gone, said Mr. George of the Interbasin Compact Committee. A wet winter is now prompting federal officials to release more water downstream into the reservoir. One of the central tensions of these complicated negotiations is how to balance cuts between farming regions against those in cities, including major population centers. WAM and other investors could theoretically create their own reservoir accounts and let the water sit until its value was maximized. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. So it's been a high market. By the summer, the process is expected to clarify the federal governments legal authority to make unilateral cuts to states water allotments. Sprinklers deliver vital Colorado River water to a field of celery in California's Imperial Valley. John Hernandez, a Mexican-American activist, says that there's also a question of fairness if most of the money that the irrigation district gets for using less water potentially hundreds of millions of dollars each year gets passed out to just a few hundred farms. Half is in its natural state, a bone-dry desert. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton this year tasked Colorado River states with creating an ambitious conservation plan. But here there was nothing to see: just an empty field of ankle-high weeds and crimson splotches of peat. Know where your water comes from. To me, the value of water is to the grower and to the community that sends it down the river.. Six of the seven Colorado River basin states sketched out a joint proposal for how they could meet the federal governments demand to make unprecedented cuts to water usage as more than two decades of drought in the West have pushed crucial reservoirs to dangerously low levels. The Salton Sea still exists, although it's in deep trouble. The Kremlin is trying to kill Alexei Navalny. Its the rural counties going up against big money., Grady Gammage Jr., a spokesman for Greenstone, said, In my view there is enough water both to sustain a significant agricultural economy on the river and to support urban growth in central Arizona.. Back in the 1920s, they knew that if they didnt reach agreement, there were going to be winners and losers, so with a lot of wrangling and quarreling, they eventually agreed to agree, said Russell George, a former state representative from western Colorado who founded the Interbasin Compact Committee, a statewide governmental body devoted to seeking consensus on water issues. Farmland meets the desert, separated by an irrigation canal, near Fruita, Colo. Wall Street investors recognize the term valuable, he said, and now theyre here., Wall Street Eyes Billions in the Colorados Water, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/03/business/colorado-river-water-rights.html. Traders could exploit volatility, whether due to drought, failing infrastructure or government restrictions. The April selection for the Radio Bookclub is Go As A River by Colorado author Shelley Read. Lake Mead to rise one foot by Sunday after federal high flow water release, Las Vegas police: Man shot in street in west valley, 1 dead, 2 hurt in southwest Las Vegas Valley crash, Heavy, black smoke, flames seen near Cheyenne, Lamb, 2 suspects face arson charges after setting fires at Las Vegas Strip hotels, Clark County in dire need of foster parents for teens; Heres how to help, I lost everything: Recovering addict shares story of hope, helping others in Las Vegas, City turns on water at splash pads at parks across Las Vegas. The Colorado River Compact was signed in 1922 just 10 years after New Mexico became a state. Ron DeSantis, finding no legal basis for allegations that the governor violated campaign finance laws with a shadow run for the White House, North Carolina's attorney general is urging lawmakers to adopt several crime prevention proposals to tackle gun violence, the opioid crisis and the state's backlog of sexual assault cases, The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation says the bodies of seven people have been discovered during the search for two missing teenagers. Sandbars are important, according to the feds: they are places for people to camp, fish, and also protect important archaeological sites throughout the Grand Canyon and across the Colorado River. He also pointed out that unlike the private investors who quietly, quickly and pseudonymously bought up valuable property in the Wests notorious land grabs like the acquisition of the Owens River rights by the City of Los Angeles WAM has purchased water rights in its own name. But those plans, say members of Colorado's outdoor recreation, real estate, and tourism industries, jeopardize a $9 billion dollar economy that hinges on healthy rivers - and supports more . The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in June told the seven states that are part of the Colorado River Basin Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming to determine how to use at least 15% less water next year, or have restrictions imposed on them. His great-grandfather came to the valley from Sweden in the 1920s. In addition, those states are getting a hand from scientists at the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. One of the things I think weve learned over time is that a resource like water is best allocated through kind of a combination of market forces and regulatory oversight., He added, The market would say water is far more valuable serving urban populations.. Touton and two top Interior Department officials are scheduled to address the conference on Friday. It can decide the fate of every part of the economy, from almond orchards to ski resorts to semiconductor factories. Lake Powell in Big Water, Utah. The proposal lays out potential new cuts for the states of the Southwest that lie downstream from the major reservoirs Arizona, Nevada and California as well as Mexico, which has treaty rights to a portion of the rivers water. It should free him. "They have the most water, and in some senses the most power," she says. The upper basin includes Utah, Wyoming,. In a general, larger picture, its a national park, and the way the river was before the dam came in has changed a lot, Tusso said. Lake Powell's drop last March to historically low water levels raised worries about losing the ability perhaps within the next few months to produce hydropower that today serves about 5 million customers in seven states. (c) 2023 KGNU News Boulder Community Broadcast Association, If The Colorado River Were A Bank Account, We Ran Out Of Cash More Than 20 Years Ago, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), https://kgnu-news.sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/4-27-23AK_ColoradoRiver.mp3, Seicento Baroque Ensemble Brings Landmark Performance to Colorado with Bach's, "St. John Passion", Colorado Tax Payers Gave Away A Lot Of This Year's TABOR Rebates To A Handful Of Wealthy Coloradans, After Deadly Prom Night Crash, This Year Boulder Parents Are Organizing After Prom Parties And Safe Rides Homes, Somatic Psychotherapist Speaks On The Art Of Healing Ceremonies, Fernanda Nieto Plays A Mean Piano & Speaks On Lack Of Diversity, Poet Exposes Injustices & Promotes Self-Love. Today, the river provides water to 40 million people and 5.5 million acres of farmland not just in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and California but also to 29 Native American tribes and the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California. The cuts could be drastic, she warned, reducing Colorado River water access by between 2 and 4 million acre-feet across seven states that rely on itclose to the 4.4 million acre-feet of Colorado River water California is entitled to annually. Article 16, Section 5. Near its headwaters, in the farming community of Nathrop, Colo., I met up with Greg Felt, a county commissioner. CNN Deep uncertainty looms over the Colorado River and the 40 million people who depend on it for their water supply as the basin enters a critical year that could determine its future. The entire series, including Afterhours at the Radio Bookclub, is available as a podcast. "If you get to a point where you're at dead pool, you have nothing at all. This modeling proposal is a key step in the ongoing dialogue among the Seven Basin States as we continue to seek a collaborative solution to stabilize the Colorado River system, Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, said in a statement. Could A Boulder Company Solve The Takeout Food Container Trash Conundrum? Arizona city cuts off a neighborhoods water supply amid drought. Utilities, which in previous dry years bought water from farmers, found they could no longer afford it. "Six of the seven basin states are playing catch-up to reduce water use from the Colorado River, which is absolutely critically needed after 20 years of drought and the impacts of climate change," Moran told Reuters. Florida Public Utilities, a part of Chesapeake Utilities. Sandbar at river mile 45 before (LEFT) & after (RIGHT), the 2012 high-flow. Its pretty tough right now.. Duke Energy Florida, a part of Duke Energy. The Upper Basin states of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming did release a five-point plan this summer that points to the regions limited conservation options. The Imperial Irrigation District draws enough water from the river each year to cover 470,000 acres with 5 feet of water. Felt said. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs. "We have the laws in place, you know, when water comes anywhere west of the Mississippi, it's first-come, first-served, and that's how it's always been," he says.