Five years from now, if all goes to plan, Arizona will have conserved 5 million acre-feet of water.
That’s enough to fill about 2.5 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Or about 70% of what the state is estimated to use in a year, from all sources.
Or a little less than double Arizona’s annual Colorado River allotment (that is, if we were getting our full allocation, which hasn’t happened in a while).
The drought-stricken Colorado River is in critical condition. Almost two years ago, the federal government declared the first ever shortage on the river, triggering cuts to water supplies in the Southwest. Today, the river remains unsustainably low. The Colorado is the lifeblood of the region. It waters some of the country’s fastest growing cities, nourishes some of our most fertile fields, and powers $1.4 trillion dollars in annual economic activity. The river runs more than 1,400 miles, from headwaters in the Rockies to its delta in northern Mexico where it ends in a trickle.
The Colorado River this spring ran high, fast and so full of sediment pushed downstream from wildfire burn scars that the water treatment plant in Hot Sulphur Springs couldn’t keep up.
The sediment repeatedly clogged the town’s intake valves, forcing town leaders to issue and emergency order in April and call for residents to voluntarily cut back on water use.
There are no lush green lawns among the rows of single-family homes that line a quiet boulevard a mile west of the University of Arizona campus. Instead, small lizards scurry across gravel to the shade of cacti, shrubs and trees native to the Southwestern desert, as cicadas drone and backyard chickens cluck in the triple-digit heat now common here in July.
Eleven years ago, when the San Diego County Water Authority was going through the final stages of approving what had, by that time, become a decade-long odyssey to create the first desalination plant on the West Coast, the agency made a prediction.
Water is the lifeblood of civilizations, and the management of this precious resource has always been a challenging task. The Imperial Irrigation District (IID) holds a significant stake in water rights, playing a vital role in water distribution and agriculture. This essay delves into the history, challenges, and strategies employed by IID to manage water rights responsibly and sustainably.
From $800 to $1,000, and even $5,000, some Valley cities are dangling money incentives to residents, in the hope they will cut their water use amid the state’s ongoing crisis.
The programs are a direct result of cities grappling with a future of less water from the Colorado River.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation laid down the planning process on the development of post-2026 operational guidelines and strategies for Lake Powell and Lake Mead during a podcast Tuesday.
Some of the reservoir and water management documents and agreements that govern the operation of the Colorado River basin will expire in 2026, so the planning process has begun to guide the way for a resource that 40 million people in the U.S — and more in northern Mexico — depend on.
The 2007 guidelines for the Lower Basin Water Shortage are set to soon expire. As leaders prepare for mapping out the next 20 years, public input is a top priority.
Bureau of Reclamation officials have already started planning how they will operate the river and reservoirs for the next 20 years and are looking to incorporate public opinion.
One out of every six homes in the Las Vegas Valley Water District’s jurisdiction has been hit with a new fee aimed at curbing the biggest water users and conserving Southern Nevada’s small share of the Colorado River.
And it’s already making a dent when it comes to saving water in the nation’s driest metropolitan area.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
