A plan to extract lithium — the lustrous, white metal used in electric vehicle batteries — in southeast Utah is adding to an anxiety familiar in the arid American West: how the project could affect water from the Colorado River.
The high Utah mountains gained 30 inches of water this winter, compared to 12 inches the year before. That amount of water in one season has done wonders for Utah’s ongoing drought.
“This time last year, about 99% of the state was in severe drought,” said Laura Haskell, the drought coordinator with the Utah Division of Water Resources. “So we have just about 14% [that] is in the moderate drought category. And that’s it.”
This year’s record snowpack has drastically reduced a drought that really began to impact Utah by the end of spring three years ago.
The U.S. Drought Monitor currently lists about 20% of the state in either a moderate or severe drought, while the rest is either “abnormally dry” or under no drought-related designation. It’s a significant turnaround from when nearly 90% of Utah was experiencing severe drought or worse in October.
But as he stood on the grounds of the Conservation Garden Park on Monday, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox pointed out that an “unbelievable” winter is only “one piece of the puzzle” when it comes to thinking about long-term water solutions in the country’s second-driest state.
“In Utah … we’re either in drought or preparing for the next one,” he said. “We need to take action to ensure that we are always prepared.”
That’s why Utah is launching a new, first-of-its-kind statewide incentive program, which helps Utah residents recover some of the costs of replacing turf grass, so residents can better afford less-thirsty landscape alternatives.
A railway project in Eastern Utah is drawing significant pushback in Colorado as elected officials voice concerns about crude oil risks to the Colorado River, which is the West’s primary freshwater river.
The Uinta Basin Railway project would build around 80 miles of train tracks connecting oil production to America’s rail network.
Rob Ford was watering his hay last October at his small Washington County, Utah, ranch when he realized the flow was weaker than usual. He called the irrigation manager who monitors the water levels.
“The water is really weak,” Ford said he told the irrigation manager. “Is that about what we are expecting today?”
Records keep piling up across Utah this winter.
Snowpack reached a new high after Thursday night’s storms. The snow water equivalent in Utah, or the amount of water the snow will release when its melts, sits at 26 inches as of Friday morning. That ties with the previous known record of 26 inches set on April 13, 1983, according to Utah Snow Survey data. And with the snow still falling, Friday is likely a new snowpack record.
The snow keeps falling across Utah, which will likely benefit beleaguered waters like the Great Salt Lake and Lake Powell. But it’s too soon to say how much of a difference it will make.
Snowpack is well above average in watersheds across the state, according to the latest data from the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Snow Survey. The Southeastern Utah basin is an astounding 190% above normal for this time of year, and other drainages that feed the Colorado River are close behind. All that snow has done little to lift Lake Powell’s elevation to date, which currently sits at about a quarter of its capacity and around 30 feet above the point where it will no longer be able to generate hydropower.
Still, there are reasons to be optimistic.
Utah saw a snowy start to December, which is an encouraging sign for a state experiencing ongoing drought. But experts say it’s still early, and even if Utah has an above-average winter, it’ll take several strong years to make up for a multi-year water deficit.
The federal government is designating $4 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act for drought mitigation work in the Colorado River basin.
On Wednesday, the Department of the Interior announced that total, indicating that $500 million will go to efficiency upgrades in the river’s Upper Basin states of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Wyoming. Another chunk of IRA money will be set aside for direct payments to farmers and ranchers to forgo water deliveries from Lake Mead in the river’s Lower Basin, primarily in Arizona and California. Federal officials are not specifying how much money will be available for that first round of payments.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
