Tag Archive for: Arizona

Major Extra Cuts to Be Made in Arizona Deliveries of Colorado River Water Next Year

/in , , /by /Tuscon.comby Tony Davis

The Central Arizona Project’s governing board took the first steps Thursday toward approving Arizona’s share of a plan to save a half-million acre-feet a year of Colorado River water in order to prop up ailing Lake Mead.

The plan, adopted unanimously by the board, calls for Arizona users of the river water — mostly those on CAP supplies — to shoulder more than 40% of that total, or 223,000 acre-feet in 2022. The cuts are all supposed to be voluntary and temporary, and to be compensated by either state or federal money, totalling $100 million a year for the entire conservation program.

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Arizona, California, Nevada Agree to New Colorado River Agreement to Conserve More Water

/in , , /by /The Center Squareby Cole Lauterbach

Arizona’s water authorities are close to entering into a new pact with officials from Nevada and California they hope will restore water levels at Lake Mead and stave off future rationing requirements.

A Tier 1 Colorado River water shortage begins in 2022, triggering a mandatory 512,000 acre-foot reduction to Arizona. The emergency stems from the Lake Mead reservoir reaching water levels not seen since its construction. The designation doesn’t affect Arizona residents, rather the state’s agriculture industry that represents the majority of water usage.

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Opinion: Arizona Farmers Must Use Less Water to Survive. Here Are 5 things to Do Differently

/in , , /by /Arizona Centralby Gary Nabhan

A profound reduction in the Colorado River water earmarked for Arizona’s crops has at last triggered the rationing that irrigation farmers have dreaded. The Tier 1 shortage will prompt a 512,000-acre-foot reduction in Arizona’s Colorado River deliveries.

That amounts to about 30% of Central Arizona Project’s normal supply. Extrapolating from University of Arizona studies, it will result in a decrease of about $100 million in farmgate sales, and much more if the indirect effects are fully factored in.

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New Water Year Begins with Most of the Basin in Drought

/in , , /by /Arizona Public Mediaby Alex Hager (KUNC)

October marks the beginning of a new calendar for those who measure and manage the west’s water. The good news? Across the Colorado River basin, there’s a lot less “exceptional drought.”

The amount of land under the absolute driest designation is down about 60% in less than a year. The bad news is that more than 90% of the basin remains in some level of drought.

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Colorado River Drought Conditions Spur Calls for Better Water Infrastructure

/in , , /by /Tucson Sentinelby Ariana Figueroa

Experts in government, agriculture, water management and the environment stressed during a U.S. Senate hearing on Wednesday the danger that droughts fueled by climate change pose in the West, including the Colorado River Basin.

During a hearing before an Energy and Natural Resources Committee panel, witnesses said long-term solutions and an investment in water infrastructure are needed to combat the effects of climate change.

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Opinion: What if Farmers Really Could Use 50% Less Water? Arizona Would Be a Different Place

/in , /by /AZ Centralby Joanna Allhands

What if farmers could use half the water than they are now without sacrificing crop yield?

Arizona would be a different place.

There are roughly 946,000 acres of farmland in the state, according to the most recent federal farm census in 2018, using an estimated 4.4 million acre-feet of water.

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Why Water Cuts Are Coming to Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Cordie Qualle

The Bureau of Reclamation, the agency charged with water resources management for the West at the federal government level, announced unprecedented Tier 1 cuts in water deliveries from Lake Mead on the Colorado River to Arizona, Nevada, and Mexico in 2022. The Tier 1 cuts will reduce water deliveries due to historic low water levels in Lake Mead.

California deliveries are not impacted by this announcement due to senior water rights, but they could be coming if water levels continue to drop. The Colorado River watershed and most western river watersheds that feed reservoirs with snowmelt are not producing as much runoff as they have historically due to the warming atmosphere affecting snow elevations and dryer and warmer soil and air temperatures.

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Long-Term Drought Persists, But Wet Monsoon Improved Arizona’s Conditions

/in , /by /KJZZby Katherine Davis-Young

Arizona’s wet monsoon season improved the state’s drought conditions, but the West’s water woes are far from over.

At the start of this year, nearly three-quarters of Arizona was in an exceptional drought, the U.S. Drought Monitor’s most severe category. Now, less than 1% of the state is at that level.

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Significant Summer Rain Not Enough to Erase SoCal Drought

/in , , /by /Spectrum News 1by Jacqueline Bennett

It has been a very active monsoon season, especially in Arizona.

However, here in Southern California, we do not expect much rain during the summer, and the totals we have seen thus far will not be a drought buster.

What is the monsoon?

Here is a little recap: monsoon season occurs when upper-level winds shift, drawing moisture off the Gulf of Mexico and into the Southwestern United States. Typically, this mainly impacts New Mexico and Arizona but can also impact Southern California.

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Metropolitan Water District, Supplier of Most of Pasadena’s Water, Partners with Other Agencies to Conserve Water in Lake Mead

/in , , /by /Pasadena Nowby City News Service

In response to worsening drought conditions, the board of Southern California’s regional water wholesaler and other water agencies across the Southwest have announced a partnership with the federal government to fund a short-term agricultural land fallowing program in California that will conserve water on a large scale.

The partnership among the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Central Arizona Project, Southern Nevada Water Authority, and the Palo Verde Irrigation District is expected to help conserve up to 180,000 acre-feet of water over the next three years, amounting to about a 3-feet increase in Lake Mead’s water level.

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