Tag Archive for: Colorado River

Water Authority Lays Out Colorado River Plan to Protect Lake Mead, Lake Powell

/in , , /by /Las Vegas Review-Journalby Colton Lochhead

The Southern Nevada Water Authority has a plan for how the seven states that rely on the Colorado River can protect Lake Mead and Lake Powell. But whether the other six states have any interest in backing that plan remains to be seen. The water authority on Tuesday outlined how it thinks the Colorado River basin states and the federal government can drastically cut back on water use along the dwindling Colorado next year in order to keep water levels at its two major reservoirs from crashing further and threatening putting their ability to deliver water downstream and generate hydropower.

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Opinion: It’s Time for the Feds to Pull Rank and Enforce Already Agreed Water Cuts

/in , , /by /The Arizona Republicby Bruce Babbitt

The speeches at the Colorado River summit in Las Vegas last week ranged all the way from pessimistic to panicked. Ted Cooke, the outgoing director of the Central Arizona Project, summed it up: “(T)here’s a real possibility of an effective dead pool“ at Lake Mead, making it impossible to release water through Hoover Dam for downstream delivery to Arizona and California.

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Why is the Colorado River Drying Up?

/in , /by /Newsweekby Robyn White

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.

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Scant Progress on Colorado River Cuts as Crisis Deepens

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

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.

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Water Managers Across Drought-Stricken West Agree on One Thing: ‘This is Going to Be Painful’

/in , , /by /Nevada Currentby Jennifer Solis

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.

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Watching the Death and Rebirth of the Colorado River in Mexico

/in , , /by /Deseret Newsby Kyle Dunphey

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.

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San Diego’s Zombie Water Pipeline Project is Dead Again. For Now.

/in , /by /Voice of San Diegoby MacKenzie Elmer Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

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.

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Conferees Told Colorado River Action ‘Absolutely Critical’

/in , , /by /KNAU - Arizona Public Radio

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.

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Planning for Dry Times: The West Considers More Reservoirs and Aquifers

/in , , /by /The Pew Charitable Trustsby Matt Vasilogambros

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.

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Growing Fears of ‘Dead Pool’ on Colorado River as Drought Threatens Hoover Dam Water

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ian James

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.

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