Key questions resurfaced Thursday at a conference of Colorado River water administrators and users from seven U.S. states, Native American tribes and Mexico who are served by the shrinking river stricken by drought and climate change. Who will bear the brunt of more water supply cuts, and how quickly?
The annual conference of the Colorado River Water Users Association was founded and is held in Las Vegas, at Caesars Palace. This year, it sold out for the first time, but there’s no question why: the Colorado River is in trouble. The conference focuses on use of the river by the seven states, Mexico and tribes —all of whom take more water from the river than is refilled each year.
As California faces the prospect of a fourth consecutive dry year, officials with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California have declared a regional drought emergency and called on water agencies to immediately reduce their use of all imported supplies.
The decision from MWD’s board came about eight months after officials declared a similar emergency for 7 million people who are dependent on supplies from the State Water Project, a vast network of reservoirs, canals and dams that convey water from Northern California. Residents reliant on California’s other major supply — the Colorado River — had not been included in that emergency declaration.
As Western water managers are gathering in Las Vegas this week, a long-sought deal to curtail water use along the cratering Colorado River still seems a ways off. Nearly six months have passed since Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton first asked the Western states to come up with a plan to cut back on water use from the river next year by as much as 30 percent, but a cohesive proposal from the seven states that pull from the Colorado that supplies water to some 40 million people has yet to emerge.
States in the Upper Colorado River Basin on Wednesday launched a $125 million program aimed at reducing reliance on the shirking waterway, although it remains to be seen how much water could actually be conserved. The Upper Colorado River Commission, which represents Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, released details on its Upper Basin System Conservation Pilot Program, which will pay users with rights to the river’s waters to temporarily forego their allocations.
Yuma County continues to fight for its water rights. Joining La Paz and Mohave counties in a lawsuit against the Bureau of Reclamation, uniting western Arizona. Earlier, the Yuma County Supervisors voted unanimously in November to combine resources. Joining a legal challenge over a transfer of 2,000 acre-feet of water from La Paz County to Queen Creek in central Arizona. The lawsuit’s overall goal is to prevent future transfers of Colorado River water to Queen Creek.
As we head into winter, and growing season is over in most of the country, it is California’s Imperial Valley that supplies many of the winter vegetables you count on to keep your family eating healthy. It supplies much of the country’s winter vegetables including lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and other healthy produce. The Imperial Valley also provides a critical food source that consumers never see, but greatly impacts what we eat.
The Southwest’s next source of water might be gurgling through the sewage pipes under this corner of Los Angeles County, an untapped stream in a Colorado River Basin that is otherwise tapped out. Indirectly, Arizonans are poised to reap the benefits of a plan to recycle the last drops from a river that begins as Rocky Mountain snow but ends as treated wastewater dumped into the Pacific Ocean.
As Western water managers get set to gather in Las Vegas this week, a long-sought deal to curtail water use along the cratering Colorado River still seems a ways off. Nearly six months have passed since Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton first asked the Western states to come up with a plan to cut back on water use from the river next year by as much as 30 percent, but a cohesive proposal from the seven states that pull from the Colorado that supplies water to some 40 million people has yet to emerge.
Management of the depleted Colorado River needs an overhaul, speakers at a University of Arizona-sponsored conference agreed. But at a conference called last week to observe the 100th anniversary of the interstate compact that divided river water rights among Western states, the speakers disagreed over whether the Colorado River Compact itself needs a major rework.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
