Tag Archive for: Colorado River

California’s Drought-Relief Dreams Are Quickly Drying Up

/in , , /by /Bloombergby Brian K Sullivan, Mark Chediak, and Elizabeth Elkin

As recently as Christmas, it looked like California’s devastating drought could—if not fully disappear—at least be on track for serious improvement by spring. That’s no longer the case.

California’s snowpack was promisingly high at the start of the year after Pacific storms in October and December delivered a round of heavy rains and deep snows. But it has since dropped below where officials hoped it would be for this time of year after those early-season cloudbursts turned out to be isolated events.

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Opinion: Water May Cost More Now, But 30 Years Ago San Diego Almost Ran Out

/in , , /by /Times of San Diegoby Gary Croucher Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the cost of water — and that makes sense given the economic realities faced by many residents, farmers, and businesses. But it also seems that newer generations of San Diegans do not know that there was a time when we didn’t have water when and where we needed it.

Thankfully, that’s not a problem in San Diego County today even though elsewhere drought-stricken communities face the potential of only having enough water to meet basic health and safety needs.

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Los Angeles Is Building a Future Where Water Won’t Run Out

/in , , /by /Bloombergby Brian Eckhouse and Laura Bliss

A helicopter whisks off a rooftop in downtown Los Angeles, climbs above a thin layer of haze and soars over barren mountains past the city’s edge. Soon, scars of climatic stress are evident to L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and Martin Adams, general manager and chief engineer of the city’s water and power department, as they peer out the windows. Trees torched years ago by wildfire. Flats parched by sun and little precipitation.

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New Irrigation Technology Could Save Water for Arizona Farms

/in , , /by /Arizona Daily Sunby Diana Quintero

The Central Arizona Project, which delivers Colorado River water to more than 80% of Arizona’s growing population, is taking a three-pronged approach to the megadrought that has resulted in the first water cutbacks to Arizona farmers.

One of those approaches is N-Drip, which converts flood-irrigated fields into a drip system that uses gravity, with no external form of energy. Developed by an Israeli company, the system is being tested to grow sorghum in Australia, sugar cane in Thailand and now cotton and alfalfa in Arizona.

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Scientists See Silver Lining in Fed’s Efforts at Lake Powell

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Joan Meiners

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced last week that it plans to adjust management protocols for the Colorado River in early 2022 to reduce monthly releases from Lake Powell in an effort to keep the reservoir from dropping farther below 2021′s historic lows.

As of Jan. 6, the nation’s second-largest reservoir — part of a Colorado River system that provides drinking water to approximately 40 million people throughout the West — sat at an elevation of 3,536 feet, the Spectrum reported.

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Dropping Reservoirs Create ‘Green Light’ for Sustainability on Colorado River

/in , , /by /The Aspen Timesby Heather Sackett

Some Colorado River scholars say that a plan by the lower-basin states to leave more water in Lake Mead embodies a principle they explore in a recently published article: Dropping reservoir levels have opened a window of opportunity for water-management policies that move the river system toward sustainability.

In December, water managers from California, Nevada and Arizona signed a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, to spend up to $200 million to add 500,000 acre-feet of water in both 2022 and 2023 to Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir, which has dropped precipitously low due to climate change and drought.

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As the Colorado River Shrinks, Can the Basin Find an Equitable Solution in Sharing the River’s Waters?

/in , , /by /Western Water (Water Education Foundation)by Douglas E. Beeman

Impacts from climate change and two decades of drought on the Colorado River are fueling fears that states in the Upper Basin – Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming – could be forced to curtail their own water use to fulfill obligations under the century-old Colorado River Compact to send a certain amount of water downstream to the Lower Basin states of California, Arizona and Nevada.

There has never been a so-called “Compact call” on the river. But as evidence grows that the river isn’t yielding the water assumed by the 1922 Colorado River Compact, questions arise about whether a Compact call may be coming, or whether the states and water interests, drawing on decades of sometimes difficult collaboration, can avert a river war that ends up in court.

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As the Colorado River Shrinks, Can New Technology Save Water on Farms? The Answer Is Complicated

/in , , /by /Arizona Public Mediaby Alex Hager

On a warm November day in Yuma, Arizona, the desert sun is beating down on a sea of low, green fields. Here, near the banks of the Colorado River, Matt McGuire is surveying an expanse of vegetables that sprawls into the desert landscape.

“You find it on the grocery shelf and it’s a leafy green,” he said, “it probably came from here. Because about 80-85% of the vegetables in the wintertime come from this area.”

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Phoenix Among Those Voluntarily Losing Colorado River Water

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Felicia Fonseca

The city of Phoenix this week outlined how it will voluntarily contribute water to a regional plan to shore up the country’s largest reservoir that delivers Colorado River water to three states and Mexico.

The river cannot provide seven Western states the water they were promised a century ago because of less snow, warmer temperatures and water lost to evaporation. Water managers repeatedly have had to pivot to develop plans to sustain it for the long-term.

Phoenix, the nation’s fifth-largest city, is among entities in the river’s lower basin that are part of the “500+ Plan” meant to delay further mandatory shortages. All pieces of the plan haven’t been finalized, but farmers and Native American tribes are expected to play a big role.

The Colorado River serves more than 40 million people in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, California, Wyoming, Utah and Mexico. Lake Mead and Lake Powell store the water and are used to gauge the river’s health.

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The Western U.S. Might Be Seeing its Last Snowy Winters

/in , , /by /Fast Companyby Adele Peters

When a fire started spreading quickly in Boulder County, Colorado, on December 30, destroying nearly 1,000 homes as residents fled, the ground was dry. This was unusual: Boulder typically gets around 30 inches of snow between September and December. But last year, it had only a total of 1.7 inches over the same period before heavier snow finally started falling on December 31—too late to save the neighborhoods that burned.

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