Tag Archive for: Water Rights

Water Futures to Start Trading Amid Growing Fears of Scarcity

/in , /by /BNN Bloomberg by Kim Chipman

Water is joining gold, oil and other commodities traded on Wall Street, highlighting worries that the life-sustaining natural resource may become scarce across more of the world.

Farmers, hedge funds and municipalities alike will be able to hedge against — or bet on — potential water scarcity starting this week, when CME Group Inc. launches contracts linked to the $1.1 billion California spot water market. According to Chicago-based CME, the futures will help water users manage risk and better align supply and demand.

The contracts, a first of their kind in the U.S., were announced in September as heat and wildfires ravaged the U.S. West Coast. They are meant to serve both as a hedge for California’s biggest water consumers against skyrocketing prices and a scarcity gauge for investors worldwide.

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Colorado River Indian Tribes Want to Lease Water for Non-Tribal Use

/in , /by /Fronterasby Katherine Davis-Young

The Colorado River Indian Tribes on the western edge of Arizona have the largest share of first-priority Colorado River water rights in the state. Now, the tribal council is proposing to lease some of its water for non-tribal use. Colorado River Indian Tribes chairman Dennis Patch thinks tribal water can be a valuable tool in Arizona drought mitigation.

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IID Board to Seat Two New Faces, Current Board Members Look to the Future

/in , , /by /The Desert Reviewby Eniyah Jackman

The Imperial Irrigation District focuses on providing water and energy supply to Imperial County and some parts of Riverside and San Diego counties. Recent elections had two open seats for the IID Board of Directors — Divisions 2 and 4, which were filled by Bruce Kuhn and Erik Ortega respectively.

With the incumbents’ loss, the two open seats have been filled by JB Hamby for Division 2, and Javier Gonzalez for Division 4.

Despite the possible challenges ahead of having two new faces on the Board, IID’s website states their goal is to “protect the Imperial Valley’s water rights and energy balancing authority.”

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Historic Move: Fresno River Rights to be Decided

/in , , /by /SJV Waterby Lois Henry

If all you’ve ever seen of the Fresno River is through Madera as you drive over it on Highway 99, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s just a weed-infested, shopping cart collector rather than a real river.

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Protecting Our Water Rights – IID Candidates Discuss Their Critical Mission

/in , , /by /KYMA Imperial Countyby April Hettinger

Access to water, and water rights in general, are critical to life in the Desert Southwest. That’s why two candidates for the Imperial Irrigation District Area 2, which includes El Centro and western Imperial County, say they take that mission very seriously.

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Reservoir-Release Pilot Project in Colorado Begins this Week to Test Possible Compact Call

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

Beginning Wednesday, Front Range water providers will release water stored in Homestake Reservoir in an effort to test how they could get water downstream to the state line in the event of a Colorado River Compact call. Aurora Water, Colorado Springs Utilities and Pueblo Board of Water Works will each release 600 acre-feet from Homestake Reservoir, which is near the town Red Cliff, for a total of 1,800 acre-feet that will flow down Homestake Creek to the Eagle River and the Colorado River.

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A Clear Warning About the Colorado River

/in , , /by /Steamboat Pilot & Today (Routt County, Colorado)by Dave Marston

For the West this summer, the news about water was grim. In some parts of California, it didn’t rain for over 100 days. In western Colorado, the ground was so dry that runoff at first evaporated into the air. And in New Mexico and Nevada, the rains never came.

Bill Hasencamp is the manager of California’s Metropolitan Water District, which provides treated water to 19 million people. What was most unfortunate, he said, was that, “the upper Colorado Basin had a 100% snowpack, yet runoff was only 54% of normal.” In 2018, a variation happened — light snow and little runoff, which doesn’t bode well for the future.

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Nevada Supreme Court says State Cannot Change Water Rights for ‘Public Trust,’ a Loss for Environmentalists, County

/in , , /by /The Nevada Independentby Daniel Rothberg

The Nevada Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state cannot reshuffle existing water rights to prevent environmental damage, despite recognizing a legal principle that requires the government to preserve natural resources for future generations.

Instead, the court ruled that principle, known as the public trust doctrine, is recognized in existing law. The Nevada court, in a 4-2 decision, separated itself from the California Supreme Court, which reached the opposite conclusion in a landmark 1980s case.

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IID Due to Respond to Abatti Petition

/in , , /by /Imperial Valley Pressby Tom Bodus

Imperial Irrigation District will file its response today to local farmer Michael Abatti’s petition to the state Supreme Court to review an appellate court decision that overturned the majority of a 2017 ruling in his ongoing legal dispute with the district over water rights.

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Mexican Water Wars: Dam Seized, Troops Deployed, at Least One Killed in Protests About Sharing with U.S.

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Times by Patrick J. McDonnell

Mexico’s water wars have turned deadly.

A long-simmering dispute about shared water rights between Mexico and the United States has erupted into open clashes pitting Mexican National Guard troops against farmers, ranchers and others who seized a dam in northern Chihuahua state.

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