For years, advocates for a drought-contingency plan for the Colorado River have said it’s all that stands between us and catastrophe for Lake Mead. They say the plan, by limiting our take from the lake for the Central Arizona Project for the next seven years, will prevent or at least delay the time that the lake drops so low it will be impossible to get virtually any water out of it.
Arizona lawmakers appear on track to pass a Colorado River drought plan, with less than 30 hours to go before a critical federal deadline. A state Senate committee voted 6-1 Wednesday evening to pass a pair of measures that outline how the state would share looming cutbacks on the river’s water and work with other states to take less. The bills now head to the full Senate and House. Both chambers are expected to pass the bills Thursday, an effort that could stretch into the night as they rush to meet a federal deadline.
Avoiding a long-expected crisis on the Colorado River, a water source for 40 million people, is coming down to a final few days of frenzied negotiations. A 19-year drought and decades of overuse have put a water shortfall on the horizon. If California and six other states, all with deeply entrenched interests, can’t agree on a plan to cut their water consumption by Jan. 31, the federal government says it will step in and decide the river’s future.
A Pacific storm swinging into California this weekend may then spread a mess of snow and ice into parts of the Midwest and Northeast, kicking off the first full week of February early next week. After one of the coldest Midwest outbreaks in a generation, the jet stream pattern will undergo a fundamental change. Instead of taking a nosedive out of Canada into the Great Lakes and Northeast, the jet stream will take a southward plunge in the western U.S. by the weekend. This will push a potent storm to the West Coast this weekend that will work its way into the Plains, Midwest and Northeast early next week.
Storms during the first three weeks of January brought seasonal rainfall and snowpack levels to average or more, increased reservoir levels and brought cautious optimism to California farmers, who hope to see improved water supplies in the coming year. After seeing the Sierra Nevada snowpack increase from 70 percent of average on Jan. 1 to 105 percent of average at the start of this week, farmers said they’re encouraged—but noted the winter still has a long way to go.
At the peak of pear packing season, Daniel Wilson’s Sacramento County operation is bustling. Pears are sorted wrapped and prepared for shipments to stores across the country. “I get so buried in it, I don’t think about it too hard. We just go until we’re done,” Wilson said. It’s an operation that sits a few feet below sea level, so flooding is always in the back of Wilson’s mind. His orchards and packing plant is surrounded by levees. “If you look, all the equipment is up high and that’s why,” Wilson explained, adding, “100 percent of what we farm is protected by levees anywhere from five feet below sea level (to) five feet above sea level. If the levees break, we’re out of business.”
Water deliveries from Lake Oroville have been increased for 2019, but unlike most of California’s reservoirs the local lake is still far lower than usual, though it’s on the rise. The Department of Water Resources reported Friday that allocations to State Water Project users were being increased to 15 percent of contracted amounts, up from the 10 percent announced in December. The 15 percent allocation amounts to 631,115 acre-feet according to DWR spokeswoman Erin Mellon. The primary source of that water is Lake Oroville.
State lawmakers want to make it easier for breweries and wineries to recycle their water. A new bill would create guidelines for reusing water from beer or wine processing for rinsing equipment and tanks. It also establishes water quality testing and treatment. The bill was introduced by Senator Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco) directs the State Water Board, in consultation with the California Department of Public Health – Food and Drug Branch, to develop regulations for microbiological, chemical, and physical water quality and treatment requirements for the onsite treatment and reuse of process water at breweries and wineries.
Federal Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman has drawn a line in the sand for Arizona and other Western states: Finish a deal to take less water from the Colorado River by Thursday, or the federal government will be forced to step in and decide how to prevent reservoirs from falling to critical levels. With just four days until that deadline, many pieces have yet to fall into place for Arizona to finish its part of the agreement and join California and Nevada in endorsing the Drought Contingency Plan.
Western states are watching with interest as Arizona comes up against a deadline to approve a plan to ensure a key reservoir doesn’t become unusable for the farmers, cities, tribes and developers that depend on it.
