The Colorado River’s water levels are the lowest they have been in a century. Scientists fear the reservoirs the river feeds into could reach deadpool level in the next few years. That would mean the water level would be too low to flow downstream from a dam or to drive turbines to generate power. And these reservoirs are integral for surrounding water supply.
State officials from across the Colorado River Basin seized on a single message as they gathered here to discuss the future of the struggling waterway last week: The river is in a state of emergency that will very soon reach a crisis for the 40 million people who rely on it, affecting agriculture and municipalities alike. But faced with doomsday projections from the Bureau of Reclamation about major reservoirs, officials agreed that harmony has not yet extended to how best to address the shortfalls triggered by more than two decades of drought, which have dramatically constricted both the river’s flows and water storage.
Water authorities in the Western U.S. don’t have a crystal ball, but rapidly receding reservoirs uncovering sunken boats and other debris lost in their depths decades ago give a clear view of the hard choices ahead. If western states do not agree on a plan to safeguard the Colorado River — the source of the region’s vitality — there won’t be enough water for anyone.
Manuel Machado Gerardo watched the mighty Colorado River Delta die perhaps more clearly than any man alive. Taking the final drags from his cigarette, he steps outside his home to greet the 112-degree heat and survey the hundreds of acres of northern Mexico farmland he’s owned for decades.
San Diego’s proposal to build its own $5 billion pipeline to the Colorado River and bypass paying Los Angeles for water is now in a state of the undead –technically lifeless unless local water officials choose to revive it again.
The word “crisis” ended a Colorado River conference that drew representatives from Southwest U.S. states, tribes and Mexico to Las Vegas this week.
A top Interior Department official closed the Colorado River Water Users Association conference on Friday calling the next three months critical for agreements to deal with drought and climate change.
One deadline is next Tuesday, when federal water managers close public comment on an effort expected to yield a plan by summer to use at least 15% less river water split among seven Western U.S. states, 30 Native American tribes and Mexico.
As parched California receives much needed rain and snow this winter, some local water officials are calling on state leaders to invest in new infrastructure projects that will store freshwater for inevitable dry times to come. The worst megadrought in 1,200 years is devastating the water supply in the Western United States.
The Colorado River’s largest reservoirs stand nearly three-quarters empty, and federal officials now say there is a real danger the reservoirs could drop so low that water would no longer flow past Hoover Dam in two years. That dire scenario — which would cut off water supplies to California, Arizona and Mexico — has taken center stage at the annual Colorado River conference in Las Vegas this week, where officials from seven states, water agencies, tribes and the federal government are negotiating over how to decrease usage on a scale never seen before.
There weren’t any smiles coming from panelists while addressing attendees at the Colorado River Water User Association’s annual conference at Caesars Palace on Thursday. The depletion of water in the Colorado River Basin has water officials alarmed, and they shared the facts.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has declared a regional drought emergency and called on water agencies to immediately reduce their use of all imported supplies. The reason? Drought conditions are limiting imported water supplies from the State Water Project in Northern California and the Colorado River.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
