Posts

Major Colorado River Water User Floats Arizona Drought Plan

/in , /by /Associated Pressby Felicia Fonseca

A major Colorado River water user has proposed an interim plan for Arizona as the state faces looming a looming deadline to manage expected shortages. The Central Arizona Project board said its proposal could jumpstart talks after previous ones failed to gain consensus among water users. The agency wants to draw up to 400,000 acre-feet of water it stored in Lake Mead and 50,000 acre-feet in Lake Pleasant, and implement a $60 million conservation program to lessen the burden of shortages on mainly farmers and developers. Another program would help improve groundwater systems but doesn’t have a price tag.

Full Story

Battle Ahead in Colorado on Water Conserved for Lake Powell Storage

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Brent Gardner-Smith

Colorado’s western slope water managers have doubled down on their position that they will oppose federal legislation creating a new regulated pool of water to boost the falling level of Lake Powell unless Colorado adopts a policy that the pool should be filled only on a voluntary basis. At a well-attended water meeting last week, Andy Mueller, the general manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District, said that without a new state policy putting limits on how water can be stored in the big reservoir, “You will find that our district, the Southwest District and hopefully others will be, frankly, opposing the federal legislation.”

Full Story

The Biggest Share of Colorado River Water in the West is up for Grabs

/in , /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Sammy Roth

A public agency and a powerful farmer are gearing up for a high-stakes court battle to determine who owns the largest share of Colorado River water in the West, complicating the river’s future as seven western states scramble to avoid severe water shortages. There’s a long history of fighting over water in California’s Imperial Valley, which has a legal right to more than 1 trillion gallons of Colorado River water each year — twice as much as the rest of California, and as much as Arizona and Nevada combined.

Full Story

The Precarious Plan for the Lake Powell Pipeline

/in , /by /High Country News (Colorado)by Emma Penrod

Nearly a decade ago, Gabriel Lozada, a man with a wiry frame and waves of steel-gray hair who looks exactly like the mathematician he is, set out to answer what he thought was a relatively simple question: Could Utah’s proposed Lake Powell Pipeline — a plan to ferry Colorado River water to southern Utah — live up to the state’s rosy forecasts of growth and prosperity? Or was it more likely to tank the economy of a small but lively retirement community in the southwestern Utah desert?

Full Story

Los Angeles Water Officials Cancel Settlement Meeting with San Diego County Water Authority

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Jeff McDonald Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

An offer last week by the San Diego County Water Authority board chairman to settle a host of litigation with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California was not well received by water officials to the north. MWD leaders accused their San Diego counterparts of violating an agreement to negotiate in private and abruptly canceled a meeting previously scheduled for Tuesday. “We were surprised by the unilateral decision by the San Diego County Water Authority to make the proposal letter public as our ongoing discussions … were confidential and our agencies have an executed confidentiality agreement governing those discussions,” the MWD chairman wrote Monday.

Full Story

Colorado River Crisis Demands Focus on Farm Conservation Programs

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Hannah Holm

If it hadn’t been for the salt in the soils beneath his farm near Hotchkiss, Colorado, Tom Kay likely would not have been able to fully irrigate his corn field this past summer. Because he has salty soils, Kay was able to get government assistance to replace an old flood irrigation system with a center-pivot sprinkler system several years ago. Sprinklers place water more precisely where the crop needs it, so less water soaks below the root zone or runs off the fields. That means less salt from the soil gets carried into the Gunnison River and, subsequently, the Colorado River. Salty irrigation water causes crop losses downstream, which is why government money is available to do things like help Kay buy sprinklers.

Full Story

Deeply Talks: Drought on the Colorado – Can We Adapt to Changing Runoff?

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Matt Weiser

Snowmelt is shrinking and runoff is coming earlier on the Upper Colorado River, the source of 90 percent of water for 40 million people in the West. This is leading to vegetation changes, water quality issues and other concerns. But it may be possible to operate reservoirs differently to ease some of these effects. In September’s episode of Deeply Talks, we spoke with two experts about the consequences and opportunities of these changes on the river.

Full Story

Arizona Officials Look To Reach Colorado River Drought Deal

/in , /by /Arizona’s Family (Phoenix)

Progress is being made in talks toward a set of agreements for cities, farmers and tribes to share in Colorado River water cutbacks, according to Arizona water officials. The Arizona Republic reports that the state water officials also want to join in a larger proposed deal to prevent Lake Mead from dropping even further. Arizona water managers have been leading a series of biweekly meetings since July to work out details of the proposed drought-contingency plan. Two officials leading the talks said they’re optimistic about finalizing agreements within Arizona in November so the state Legislature can sign off in January.

Full Story

Can We Operate the Colorado River Differently Amid Climate Change?

/in , /by /Water Deeplyby Matt Weiser

The Colorado River watershed faces increasing challenges from chronic water shortage. And it appears increasingly likely this is a new permanent condition, not an episodic drought.

As a result, the many reservoirs built in the watershed – large and small – may have to be operated differently to optimize new precipitation patterns and snowmelt routines. That is a complicated problem, because they are all operated by different entities, with different water demands and unique environmental and flood-control concerns.

But if the 10 million people who depend on the Colorado River are to continue thriving, something’s got to be done.

Full Story

US Southwest Set For Water Crisis As Levels Continue To Drop At Lake Mead And Lake Powell

/in , /by /Daily Mailby Cheyenne MacDonald

Two major lakes in the Colorado River Basin that operate as one huge reservoir to supply millions of people with water are drying up, scientists have warned. Water levels at Lake Mead and Lake Powell have been steadily declining over the course of a two-decade drought affecting the region. In addition to the extended dry spell hitting the Colorado River Basin, the water supply is suffering a severe ‘structural deficit,’ in which more water is being consumed each year than can be replenished. More than 40 million people and 7,800 square miles of farmland rely on the Colorado River and its tributaries.

Full Story