OPINION: Anxious Times for Colorado River Users

The Imperial Irrigation District recently held two workshops to update the public on the status of the negotiations on how Colorado River water will be distributed after the current guidelines expire at the end of next year.

The mood of the meeting reminded me of similar hearings back in 2003 when the IID was under heavy pressure to sign the Quantification Settlement Agreement, a basket of contracts that established new rules about water sharing in California. Most prominently, the QSA implemented the ongoing water transfers of nearly 500,000 acre-feet of water to the San Diego Water County Authority, MWD, and Coachella. The mood of those 2003 meetings was gloomy. And so it is now.