Farmers in the Imperial Valley of Southern California who use the most Colorado River water across the river basin have agreed to cut their use significantly in a new deal struck with the federal government.
The cuts will happen through 2026 and add up to more than double the amount the entire state of Nevada uses in a year.
A plan from water officials in Arizona, Nevada and California to cut back on the amount of water those states use from the Colorado River in exchange for money with hopes of saving 3 million acre-feet of water over three years is meeting conservation goals, a top water official said Wednesday.
The 2023 agreement has already seen 1.7 million acres of improvement less than one year into the effort, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton said. She says she believes the states are on pace to reach their original goal.
A key Colorado River conservation goal just got more realistic.
The Bureau of Reclamation approved an agreement this week that will keep 700,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Mead that would have been used by the Imperial Irrigation District, which uses more water from the river than any city or farming district in the West.
The Imperial Irrigation District in California, which uses more Colorado River water than any other district in the West, finalized an agreement on Monday to leave up to 700,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Mead through 2026.
As part of the landmark conservation agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the district will receive federal funding for conservation programs from 2024 through 2026 to conserve up to 300,000 acre-feet a year of water that will remain in Lake Mead to aid the drought-stricken Colorado River.
South of Headgate Rock Dam, beyond riverbanks lined with willow and mesquite, the broad floodplain of the Colorado River spreads across emerald fields and sun-bleached earth.
The Colorado River has nourished these lands in present-day western Arizona for millennia, from the ancestral Mohave people who cultivated corn, squash, beans, and melons, to the contemporary farmers of the Colorado River Indian Tribes, or CRIT, whose reservation extends for 56 miles along its namesake river.
The federal government is expected to announce water cuts soon that would affect some of the 40 million people reliant on the Colorado River, the powerhouse of the U.S. West. The Interior Department announces water availability for the coming year months in advance so Western cities, farmers and others can plan.
Behind the scenes, however, more elusive plans are being hashed out: how the basin will share water from the diminishing 1,450-mile (2,334-kilometer) river after 2026, when many current guidelines that govern it expire.
A plan to help shore up the depleted Colorado River by cutting off water to alfalfa fields in California’s crop-rich Imperial Valley is finding support from the farmers who grow it.
The Imperial Irrigation District — the biggest user of water from the 1,450-mile (2,334-kilometer) river — has offered to pay farmers to shut off irrigation to forage crops including alfalfa for up to 60 days during the peak of the sweltering summer. While farmers often balk at the idea of letting fields lie fallow, at least 80% of properties eligible for the new program have been signed up to participate, said Tina Shields, the district’s water department manager.
Forty million people depend on the Colorado River for water, but that vital resource is in peril. The river’s storage system has shrunk to an estimated 41 percent capacity as of June 2024.
The river, which irrigates 4 million acres of some of the most productive agricultural land in the United States, may never fully recover due to climate change, according to scientists.
Farmers who grow hay in the Imperial Valley will soon be eligible to receive cash payments in exchange for temporarily shutting off water to their fields for up to two months this year.
Under a program approved by the board of the Imperial Irrigation District, farmers can now apply for federal funds to compensate them for harvesting less hay as part of an effort to ease strains on the Colorado River.
The federal government and Imperial Irrigation District on Friday unveiled a key environmental assessment of a potential huge Colorado River conservation deal that could save nearly 1 million acre-feet of water through 2026 — and yield the agency and area farmers as much as $700 million in public funds.
Growers said they’re ready to begin summertime fallowing and other measures as soon as the paperwork is finalized, and the clock is ticking. But a veteran analyst of intertwined Colorado River and Salton Sea issues and an area environmental justice advocate both said they have concerns.
