Tag Archive for: Central Arizona Project

A Colorado River Veteran Moves Upstream and Plunges into the Drought-Stressed River’s Mounting Woes

/in , , /by /Western Water (Water Education Foundation)by Nick Cahill

Chuck Cullom is used to responding to myriad challenges that arise on the Colorado River. But this summer problems on the drought-stressed river are piling up at a dizzying pace: Reservoirs plummeting to record low levels, question of whether Hoover Dam and Glen Canyon Dam can continue to release water and produce hydropower and unprecedented water cuts. As executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission, Cullom brings an unusual perspective to the growing list of challenges. Cullom spent the last two decades viewing issues on the river through a Lower Basin lens, managing drought strategies and mitigation plans for the Central Arizona Project. Now, in his first year at the commission, Cullom has the chance to use his dual-basin perspective to help the seven states and 30 federally recognized tribes hash out ways to address the river’s issues.

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Pipe Dreams: Why Far-Fetched Western Water Projects Won’t Go Away

/in , , /by /Gristby Jake Bittle

The California water wars of the early twentieth century are summed up in a famous line from the 1974 film Chinatown: “Either you bring the water to L.A., or you bring L.A. to the water.” Nearly a hundred years have elapsed since the events the film dramatizes, but much of the West still approaches water the same way. If you don’t have enough of it, go find more.

As politicians across the West confront the consequences of the climate-fueled Millennium Drought, many of them are heeding the words of Chinatown and trying to bring in outside water through massive capital projects. There are at least half a dozen major water pipeline projects under consideration throughout the region, ranging from ambitious to outlandish. Arizona lawmakers want to build a pipeline from the Mississippi River more than a thousand miles away, a Colorado rancher wants to pipe water 300 miles across the Rockies, and Utah wants to pump even more water out of the already-depleted Lake Powell.

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‘The Moment of Reckoning Is Near’: Feds Warn Huge Cuts Needed to Shore Up Lake Mead, Colorado River

/in , , /by /USA Todayby Janet Wilson

A top federal water official told Congress on Tuesday that shortages on the Colorado River system have taken an even grimmer turn, with a whopping 2 million to 4 million acre-feet of reduction in water use needed by 2023 just to keep Lake Mead functioning and physically capable of delivering drinking water, irrigation and power to millions of people.

Levels at the reservoir have dropped to an all-time low of 28% of capacity, with no relief in sight, said Camille Touton, Bureau of Reclamation commissioner who testified early Tuesday to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

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Tucson Votes to Give Up Some of its CAP water to Help Save Lake Mead

/in , , /by /KOLD News 13by Bud Foster

The Tucson City Council voted unanimously to give back about a third of its Central Arizona Project water allocation to help an ailing Lake Mead.

The lake, hit hard by a prolonged drought, is at 31% capacity and dropping. It provides water for 20 million people in Arizona, California and Nevada as well as large swaths of farmland.

“I feel that the city of Tucson is in a position where we can add water back to the lake, specifically Lake Mead,” said Tucson Mayor Regina Romero before the vote.

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As Colorado River Shrinks, Pain of Drought to Spread

/in , , /by /E&E Newsby Jennifer Yachnin

Rolf Schmidt-Petersen knows what can happen when a water shortage hits: Reservoirs shrink and tempers flare.

“We had people literally throwing rocks, tomatoes when Elephant Butte went down,” recalled Schmidt-Petersen, director of the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission. He was talking about a 2003 deal to release water from a reservoir in southern New Mexico and drop the lake by about 33 feet to assist farmers in the state and neighboring Texas.

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Opinion: The Lower Basin Inked A Plan To Save Lake Mead In Just 4 Months. But We’re Not Done

/in , /by /Arizona Republicby Joanna Allhands

The takeaway from the “500-plus plan,” the recently inked effort to save Lake Mead, can be summed up in just three words:

We’re. Not. Done.

That doesn’t make the deal any less consequential.

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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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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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Importing Water for Drought Fix Huge Project

/in , , /by /Arizona Capitol Timesby Obren Manjencich

Importing muddy water from the Mississippi River to save Arizona from drought could be as simple as landing a man on the moon.  

As droughts force local communities to find alternative solutions to water shortages, Arizonans could turn to importing flood water in the future.    

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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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