Serving as the “lifeline of the
Southwest,” and one of the most heavily regulated rivers in the
world, the Colorado River provides water to 35 million people and
more than 4 million acres of farmland in a region encompassing
some 246,000 square miles.
From its headwaters northwest of Denver in the Rocky Mountains,
the 1,450-mile long river and its tributaries pass through parts
of seven states: Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico,
Nevada, Utah and Wyoming and is also used by the
Republic of Mexico. Along the way, almost every drop of the
Colorado River is allocated for use.
The Colorado River Basin is also home to a range of habitats and
ecosystems from mountain to desert to ocean.
… The goal of the purchase is to keep the river water
flowing perpetually to the Shoshone site long after the plant
is defunct, to benefit the region’s vital tourism and
recreation industries and the environment. The transaction is
set to close in 2027, with several legal, financial and
administrative hurdles to clear along the way. The pending
Shoshone deal is one of a growing number of non-traditional
arrangements for augmenting water supplies in the Colorado
River Basin. The Southwest’s most important waterway is
shrinking in a hotter, drier climate, and its future rules of
operation remain uncertain. The seven Colorado River
states are deadlocked in negotiations over how the river’s two
key reservoirs, lakes Mead and Powell, will store and release
water after 2026 when the current operating rules expire. The
outcome of that process will decide how the water supply for 40
million people and 5 million acres of farmland from Wyoming to
Mexico will be managed for years to come.
Phoenix is negotiating with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to
give up some of the city’s allotment of Colorado River water in
exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars. If approved, this
would be the second such deal. In May 2023, Phoenix leaders
agreed to a smaller allotment for three years in exchange for
$60 million. The new deal could net Phoenix up to $300 million.
It’s part of the Bureau of Reclamation’s efforts to incentivize
long-term conservation. In Phoenix’s case, Water Services
director Troy Hayes says the deal involves an advanced water
purification plant at the future North Gateway Water
Reclamation Facility.
Endangered fish recovery programs in Colorado and three other
Western states were given renewed access to federal funds
thanks to a bill passed Wednesday by Congress. Lawmakers
gave the go-ahead to the Bureau of Reclamation to spend tax
dollars on the programs with just days left in a lame-duck
session, which adjourns Friday. The news was welcomed in
Colorado, where the programs help protect four threatened and
endangered species in the Colorado River and
San Juan River basins. Lawmakers voted to reauthorize
the federal funding for seven years for two programs: the
Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program
— which operates in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming — and the
San Juan River Basin Recovery Implementation Program — which
spans Colorado and New Mexico. The total funding amount is yet
to be determined. The federal government allocated about $16.6
million, total, for the two programs between October 2023 and
September 2024.
Coby Hunt’s farm field near the southeast Utah town of Green
River would normally be filled with alfalfa growing up to his
knees. This year, however, it was barren — pale gray dirt
cracking under the late summer sun. The only green things were
scraggly scraps of whatever accidental plants somehow survived
without irrigation. … “It hurts,” he said as he surveyed
the desolate field. “But there’s also a benefit of it looking
like this, right?” That benefit is taking the water he could
have used to irrigate his land and leaving it in the nearby
Green River, which flows to the increasingly strained Colorado
River. … Across Utah, farmers are experimenting with ways to
tighten their water use as agriculture, drought and population
growth collide to put pressure on the state’s limited water
resources. Some are installing more efficient irrigation
technology. Others are testing unconventional crops. In Hunt’s
case, he’s taking some of his farmland out of commission
entirely — for a time and for a price.
Tribal nations, Arizona and over 30 other stakeholders have
just days to get a historic water rights settlement through
Congress, and they’ll have to get past pushback from Upper
Basin states, including Colorado, to do it. The Northeastern
Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Act would secure safe,
reliable water for thousands of Navajo, Hopi and San Juan
Southern Paiute tribal members in northeastern Arizona.
… It would resolve water rights disputes, and
potentially set up new funding streams for tribes. … But some
Congressional representatives have balked at the price tag: $5
billion. … And Colorado River officials in Colorado, New
Mexico, Utah and Wyoming have concerns about how the settlement
would allow water from their basin to be used farther
downstream. Congress is set to be adjourned by Friday, and
federal lawmakers want to see a consensus from all seven
Colorado River Basin states before voting. If that doesn’t
happen, advocates would have to restart with a new mix of
federal lawmakers next year.
Throughline associate producer Anya Steinberg talks to
supervising senior editor Julie Caine about her reporting trip
to Owens Valley in northeastern California for the episode,
“Water in the West,” about the creation of—and controversy
over—the Los Angeles aqueduct.
Texas agencies reported 252 new cases of groundwater
contamination during 2023 in the Texas Groundwater Protection
Committee annual report. The latest report compiles 2,870
open cases of groundwater contamination, some of which date
back decades. Nearly every county in Texas is impacted by the
problem. During 2023, Texas regulators notified 34 local
authorities—from El Paso to Houston—that newly identified
contamination could impact their public drinking water. An
additional 289 property owners were notified that groundwater
contamination may impact their private wells.
… Agriculture is the biggest consumer of groundwater
statewide, according to the Texas Water Development Board.
Reliance on groundwater varies around the state, which is
divided into water planning regions. In region F, which
stretches from the Permian Basin east toward San Antonio,
groundwater makes up more than 80 percent of the
water supply. In Region K, which covers the Lower Colorado
River including Travis County, groundwater provides only
28 percent of the water supply.
… The Imperial Irrigation District uses more water from the
Colorado River than any other single entity – farm district,
city, or otherwise – from Wyoming to Mexico. As climate change
shrinks the river’s supplies, its biggest users are facing
increasing pressure to cut back on their demand. … Over the
course of three years, [the federal government] agreed to send
more than $500 million to the district to use less water and
leave it in Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir. That
money comes from the Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction
Act. Water leaders in the West and Washington D.C. alike have
lauded the effort as a pivotal way to boost the reservoir,
which has dropped to all-time low levels in recent years.
Similar spending has saved water on farms and tribal land
across the region. It has also made city utilities more
efficient. But now, on the cusp of Donald Trump’s return to the
White House, those who use the river’s water are worried that
funding could disappear.
Following last week’s annual conference of Colorado River water
users, the seven basin states are preparing for a second Trump
term, and there’s still unfinished business on Capitol Hill.
Arizona has already signed a historic $5 billion Indian water
rights settlement with three federally recognized tribes, but
neighboring states and Congress still need to ratify the deal
before this session adjourns — otherwise negotiations will have
to begin anew. Stakeholders still aren’t seeing eye-to-eye on
Arizona’s agreement — the Northeastern Arizona Indian Water
Rights Settlement — despite the fact the Navajo Nation and
their allies aggressively advocated for it during the Colorado
River Water Users Association conference in Las Vegas. A
coordinated campaign ensued.
Arizona’s Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA) took a
step toward importing billions of gallons of water from out of
state, but it’ll likely be many years before that
happens. Why it matters: The Arizona Department of Water
Resources (ADWR) projects that demand for water will increase
by at least 1.5 million acre-feet — an acre-foot is about
326,000 gallons — by 2060. That demand could hit
100,000-500,000 acre-feet within the next 10-15 years,
according to WIFA. WIFA hopes to meet that demand with
the water importation project, which could bring in as much as
about 163 billion gallons of water annually. Threat
level: The Colorado River basin has endured a
“megadrought” for over two decades, the worst the region has
experienced in roughly 1,200 years. The big picture: WIFA has
approximately $445 million allocated for long-term water
augmentation, with 75% legally designated for out-of-state
sources.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced Wednesday she’s
suing a Saudi Arabian agribusiness for allegedly violating a
public nuisance law, contending that its groundwater pumping
threatens the public health, safety and infrastructure of local
communities in a rural western county. The complaint filed in
Maricopa County Superior Court alleges that the pumping at a
Fondomonte Arizona, LLC. alfalfa farm has had widespread
effects in the Ranegras Plain Basin of La Paz County, harming
everyone who depends on basin water by drawing down supplies,
drying up wells and causing the ground to crack and sink in
some areas. The lawsuit is the latest action by Arizona against
foreign companies that use huge amounts of groundwater to grow
thirsty forage crops for export because of climate challenges
in other countries. Rural Arizona is especially attractive to
international businesses because it has no groundwater pumping
regulations.
At the Colorado River Water Users Association conference last
week in Las Vegas, Nevada, representatives from the 25th Navajo
Nation Council, the Navajo Nation Department of Justice, the
Office of the President and Vice President, and the speaker’s
office outlined the significant water challenges facing Navajo
communities and the opportunities presented by ongoing water
rights settlement agreements. Crystal Tulley-Cordova, a
hydrologist with the Navajo Nation Department of Water
Resources, stated at the conference that the tribe is committed
to safeguarding water resources across its 27,000-square-mile
Navajo Nation, which spans Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. “When
we think about the challenges and addressing the challenges in
the Navajo Nation, my job is to securely protect and manage the
water resources,” said Tulley-Cordova.
The fishing on the Colorado River near Lee’s Ferry on the Fly
is world-renowned – taking people to fish under Horseshoe Bend
and near Glen Canyon Dam. However, increasing river
temperatures have hurt fish, causing a ripple effect among
local fishing businesses. Lake Powell is just under 40% full,
so the water flowing into the Colorado River is much warmer.
This has caused native fish numbers to dwindle and hurt local
fishing companies. … Scott Rogers, Arizona Game and
Fish Aquatic Wildlife Program manager, said warm water
attracts nonnative fish and harms the trout population. “The
problem is all these issues have impacted the fishery through
primarily there the Trout’s ability to produce offspring,”
Roger said. Foster said this has caused many fishing companies
to go out of business. “There was as many as 20 fishing guides
working this piece of river but now there are only five of us
left. It’s due to catch rates and the size of the fish,” he
said.
… The [U.S. Supreme Court] justices heard oral arguments over
the controversial stretch of track that would connect the
remote Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah to national rail lines,
allowing more waxy crude from one of the nation’s largest oil
fields to be transported to refineries on the Gulf Coast. On
its surface, the case is about the 88-mile rail line, but it
has also become a proxy battle over how far federal agencies
should go in assessing the environmental impact of highways,
pipelines and other projects before deciding whether to approve
them. … Five environmental groups and the county that
is home to Vail, Colorado, argue that [the National
Environmental Policy Act] calls for a more holistic
review, saying the rail project could have devastating impacts
on local habitats, could lead to oil spills in the
Colorado River and would quintuple oil production,
worsening climate change and pollution near refineries in the
South.
The Colorado River is shrinking as climate change worsens the
Southwestern drought, so the Biden administration has been
paying farmers and cities not to use water. It’s spending
nearly $5 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act to ensure
the nation’s biggest reservoirs don’t go dry. But
President-elect Trump’s campaign has threatened to cut that
funding. And as KUNC’s Alex Hager reports, people who share the
river’s water are worried.
Water managers from the Colorado River District met with Pitkin
County Commissioners Tuesday to talk about shared goals and
points of contention around keeping more water in Western Slope
rivers. Representatives from the Glenwood Springs-based
Colorado River Water Conservation District attended a work
session with commissioners to explain how a deal with a Front
Range diverter keeps more flow in the Roaring Fork, and about
their plan to purchase the water rights tied to the Shoshone
hydroplant in Glenwood Canyon.
… In a case that will be argued Tuesday, the Supreme Court,
minus Justice Neil Gorsuch, who recused himself, will consider
whether the National Environmental Policy Act requires federal
regulators to analyze the indirect impacts — namely, a likely
increase in Uinta Basin drilling and Gulf refining capacity —
that would stem from building the Utah railway. … the Supreme
Court’s ruling, expected by early summer, is likely to redefine
the scope of federal environmental and climate studies
underpinning infrastructure projects nationwide. … Eagle
County Commissioner Matt Scherr, an opponent of the Utah
railway, said the project would increase the number of trains
on the downstream track network, which would increase the
number of derailments and spills his county — [which] has the
potential to reach the Colorado River, which
supplies drinking water to 40 million people in the West.
How can metro Phoenix erase an acute housing shortage without
draining its aquifers, now that the groundwater on which much
of this growth once relied is spoken for? It’s a thorny policy
question to weed through. State law requires subdivisions in
metro Phoenix to prove they have enough water to sustain
themselves, before they build. And for years, that happened in
one of two ways: A designated water provider — one that has
enough renewable water to serve current and some future
customers for 100 years — could agree to serve the new
development. Or a housing subdivision could earn a certificate
from the state to pump groundwater, then join a district that
would replenish most of what they pump on their behalf. But the
state cut off the latter practice once it was clear that we had
begun bumping up against our groundwater supply’s limits.
A coalition of tribes, water officials and water board members
from the Lower Basin of the Colorado River came to the Colorado
River Water Users Association meeting last week on a mission:
overcome resistance by Upper Basin states to passing key water
rights settlement legislation before Congress adjourns later
this month. The Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights
Settlement Act would ratify an agreement reached after nearly
six decades of negotiation and litigation over portions of the
Colorado and Little Colorado rivers and groundwater. The
settlement act would also fund the infrastructure to bring safe
and reliable water to the Navajo Nation and the Hopi and San
Juan Southern Paiute tribes, which most Arizonans take for
granted.
A legal fight over an 88-mile proposed railway in Utah has set
the stage for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide how federal
agencies evaluate the environmental impacts of projects
requiring their approval, a decision with the potential to
drastically shift how projects are permitted across the nation.
The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in the case,
Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, on
Tuesday, Dec. 10. It’s the latest development following a U.S.
Court of Appeals decision last year that overturned a
federal agency’s approval of the railway after a lawsuit from
environmental groups and a Colorado county along the project’s
path. The appeals court found that the review failed to
evaluate the downstream impacts of the project. … It has
long faced opposition from local environmental groups
critical of the increase in greenhouse gas emissions resulting
from burning the oil and the risk of a derailment and
spill into the Colorado River.
States that use the Colorado River have spent the better part
of 2024 deadlocked about how to share its shrinking water
supplies, and annual water meetings in Las Vegas laid bare how
far those states are from an agreement. The seven states can’t
agree on who should feel the pain of water cutbacks during dry
times. The river is getting smaller due to climate change, and
states need to come up with new rules to share its water.
Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico make up the Upper Basin.
California, Arizona and Nevada represent the Lower Basin. The
current rules for sharing water expire in 2026, and each group
has submitted a separate proposal for new guidelines after that
point.
Yuma farmers and members of water allocation organizations are
waiting to see how the new Presidential administration moves
forward before they can determine which proposed alternatives
will benefit the area the best following the federal
government’s release of next steps in guiding post-2026
operations for the Colorado River. … According to the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the Colorado River Basin has
experienced its driest period in over 1,000 years during these
last few decades. “As the West continues to face drought
conditions, now is the time for more investment, innovation and
collaboration for urgent and essential progress across the
Colorado River Basin,” said White House National Climate
Advisor Ali Zaidi. “We owe it to future generations to find
long-term solutions that ensure the river’s continued
stability.”
An unusual idea floated by the president of the Utah State
Senate to get more shares of Colorado River water is intriguing
California water officials. In an interview with FOX 13 News in
May, Senate President J. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, proposed a
novel idea: “We actually build desalination plants in
California and trade them for the Colorado River water.”
… San Diego County has built a desalination plant in
Carlsbad. Nevada is currently investing in water reuse projects
in California that could ultimately benefit them upstream
on the Colorado River. … While the Utah State Senate
President is big on the idea of offering cash for Colorado
River water shares, it’s easier said than done. ”There’s a
couple of challenges: One is, it’s extremely expensive and the
second one is just logistically. But you can do these offsets
which can be beneficial,” said Joel Ferry, the head of Utah’s
Department of Natural Resources … But Ferry wouldn’t rule it
out.
Construction vehicles wheeled near the Oso Diversion Dam one
day late last month as workers removed sediment from water. …
The Oso Diversion Dam, part of the San Juan-Chama Project,
marks the beginning of the nearly 13-mile Azotea Tunnel, which
transports water from the Colorado River basin to the Rio Chama
and then to the Rio Grande, where it flows to Santa Fe,
Albuquerque and other municipalities … Burn scars are
susceptible to increased erosion, sending vast amounts of
sediment into waterways.
The future of managing water in the West remains uncertain
following the presidential election. But a handful of Colorado
River Basin tribes are celebrating a series of new water
infrastructure investments from the outgoing Biden
administration. Inside a cramped room at a Las Vegas resort,
leaders from five federally recognized Southwestern tribes came
together during the annual Colorado River Water Users
Association conference. … The San Carlos Apache Tribe and
Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe, which straddles the
Arizona-California border, met with the Bureau of Reclamation
to extend water-saving agreements during a signing ceremony on
Wednesday. San Carlos has agreed to not withdraw 30,000 acre
feet from Lake Mead in exchange for $12 million from the
federal government, while Fort Yuma Quechan will collect $5.2
million to leave 13,000 acre feet alone.
Two female botanists—Elzada Clover and Louis Jotter—made
headlines for riding the rapids of the Colorado River in 1938
in an effort to document the Grand Canyon’s plant life. In
Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped
the Botany of the Grand Canyon, author Melissa L. Sevigny
retraces their journey and shows how the ambitious river
expedition, one that many believed impossible for women,
changed not only Clover and Jotter but also our understanding
of botany in this remote corner of the American West.
The standoff over the Colorado River’s future continues.
Hundreds of people gathered in a Las Vegas conference room
Thursday to get a much anticipated glimpse into negotiations
over the river’s future management from seven state officials.
What they heard was oft-repeated talking points,
finger-pointing and disagreements over basic facts. … The
Colorado River has been stretched thin, overused and beset by
over two decades of drought. The state negotiations are part of
a long federal process to replace the current management rules,
which expire in 2026 and outline how two key reservoirs, lakes
Mead and Powell, store and release water in wet and dry
years. The outcome of that federal process will decide how
the water supply for 40 million people will be managed for
years to come.
Having access to clean, reliable water has never been a given
on tribal lands that rely on the Colorado River. “Community
members turn on their faucets every day to have black,
manganese-filled water come out,” said KeAloha Douma, attorney
general of the White Mountain Apache Tribe in Arizona. “That
should not be happening in America, but it’s happening within
our own communities.” Douma’s tribe is one of five that may see
improvements in their water supply thanks to agreements signed
Wednesday in Las Vegas at the Colorado River Water Users
Association conference, an annual gathering of officials to
discuss the most pressing issues facing the basin. It may be
one of the final actions Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner
Camille Calimlim Touton takes in the role as Donald Trump
reassumes the presidency. Several tribal leaders who spoke to
the media noted that it’s uncommon for a sitting Reclamation
commissioner to make time to visit sovereign nations.
Californians reliant on the Colorado River have saved
over 1.2 million acre-feet of water in just two years,
potentially raising Lake Mead’s water levels by an
estimated 16 feet. This achievement, announced by the Colorado
River Board of California on Wednesday, is a significant
achievement given the worsening crisis unfolding along the
Colorado River and its reservoirs. An acre foot is a commonly
used term in water management. It equates to the volume
required to cover an acre of land with one foot of
water—approximately 326,000 gallons. The progress stems from a
series of conservation agreements implemented in 2023 and 2024.
Amid a stalemate over the future of the drought-stricken
Colorado River, top state negotiators from across the West will
meet at an annual gathering here this week along with the Biden
administration officials who appear unlikely to forge an
agreement before leaving office. Federal, state and tribal
officials, along with environmentalists, farmers and other
major water users, are all descending on the city for the
Colorado River Water Users Association (CRWUA) conference,
which this year comes as former President Donald Trump is about
to come back into the White House. Although they are not
expected to reach a deal, the focus will be on the multistate
agreement that needs to be secured by 2026 to govern the
waterway’s long-term operations.
Western Slope water managers are asking the federal government
to help fund a water rights purchase to keep the Colorado River
flowing west. In November, the Colorado River Water
Conservation District filed an application with the U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation for $40 million to help buy the water rights
associated with the Shoshone hydropower plant in Glenwood
Canyon. River District officials say the water rights,
which are some of oldest non-consumptive rights on the Western
Slope, are essential for downstream ecosystems, cities,
agricultural and recreational water users. The water rights
have the ability to draw 1,408 cfs of water downstream and can
command the river’s flow by forcing Front Range water providers
that draw from the headwaters to shut off. But
President-elect Trump has said he would claw back the unspent
funds from the Inflation Reduction Act — $450 million of which
was allocated to Upper Colorado River Basin projects — when his
administration takes over in January. That means the $40
million the River District is requesting could be in jeopardy.
U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse introduced legislation on Tuesday aimed at
boosting efforts to slow the spread of highly invasive aquatic
species in waterways across Colorado and the West, following
the detection of zebra mussels in several locations on the
Western Slope this summer. …. Bennet and Daines have
introduced several versions of the bill dating back to 2019.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced in July that testing had
confirmed the presence of zebra mussel larvae, known as
veligers, in the Colorado River and in the Government Highline
Canal near Grand Junction. The species poses an “extreme risk”
to water ecosystems because it strips plankton, an essential
food source, from the water. Adult zebra mussels can also
threaten water supplies and irrigation systems by impeding or
stopping water flows and attaching to infrastructure, causing
millions of dollars in damages and increased maintenance costs.
It’s no secret Lake Mead has seen a decline in recent years —
it currently sits at about 32% full capacity — but the larger
water system that feeds the reservoir is also strained. How the
critical resource will be managed in the years to come is up
for debate and will be a topic at the Colorado River Water
Users Association Conference this week in Las Vegas.
… Current rules that have been in place for Colorado
River management since 2007 expire in 2026, but the seven
states in talks for the next phase have not yet come to an
agreement.
Governor Katie Hobbs on Nov. 19 officially concluded decades of
negotiations and court battles over tribal water rights when
she signed two settlements involving four Arizona Native
American tribes. The Arizona Governor signed the Northeastern
Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Agreement, which settled
long-standing claims with the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, and
the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe. In addition, she signed the
Yavapai-Apache Nation Water Rights Settlement Agreement with
the Yavapai Apache Nation of north-central Arizona. Both
agreements with the federally recognized tribes are now before
Congress.
… Farmers, tribal leaders, city utility managers,
environmentalists, scientists, journalists, and a host of other
people will pack into a hotel ballroom at the Paris Hotel. Amid
the roughly 1,500 people in attendance, the spotlight will be
on seven. They’re the top water negotiators from the states
that share the Colorado River. At this Las Vegas family
reunion, those states are the kids coming home for the
holidays. They used to get along a little better in the good
times when the river and its reservoirs were full of water. But
now, times are tight. Climate change is sapping the river of
its water, and there’s less to go around. “The kids are
fighting and it’s really sad to watch,” said John Fleck, a
professor who teaches water policy and governance at the
University of New Mexico.
Tribal leaders in Arizona who spent 40 years hashing out a deal
to secure their share of flows from the Colorado River are
looking to end the long-running campaign in a sprint: urging
lawmakers to adopt the $5 billion water rights settlement in
the five weeks before the 118th Congress ends. The Navajo
Nation, Hopi Tribe and San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe are
banking in part on Congress’ predilection for adopting tribal
water bills during lame-duck sessions, whether as stand-alone
legislation or part of large packages. A review of bills
adopted since 2000 shows a dozen settlements adopted between
Election Day and the start of the next Congress. But concerns
raised by some Colorado River Basin states over the
Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement’s impact on
water use and management threaten to delay the legislation to
the next Congress. Seven states share the waterway, which
supports 40 million individuals.
The Biden administration on Wednesday released four
alternatives to address the drought-stricken Colorado River’s
water shortages, giving seven states, 30 tribes and the 40
million people who rely on the river a taste of how the vital
waterway will be managed in the coming decades. But the
announcement offers little in the way of hard details, with a
draft environmental impact statement analyzing the impacts of
the Department of Interior’s proposed alternatives pushed back
to next year. The states, meanwhile, remain divided over the
path forward to deal with shortages on the river.
… Audubon supports H.R. 9515, the Lower Colorado River
Multi-Species Conservation Program Amendment Act of 2024. The
Program constructs habitats along the Colorado River below
Hoover Dam, and that habitat is essential not only for the 27
species the program targets, but also for many of the 400
species of birds that rely on the Lower Colorado River,
including Yellow-billed Cuckoos, Sandhill Cranes, and Yuma
Ridgway’s Rails. Today, because the Program spending does not
keep pace with the collection of funds from non-federal
partners, about $70 million is held in non-interest-bearing
accounts. If these funds were held in an interest-bearing
account, the Program would have about $2 million in additional
funds per year, and be more able to maintain program
implementation in the face of increasing costs. —Written by Jennifer Pitt, Audubon’s Colorado River program
director
The governor of Arizona signed two tribal settlements
this week, ending decades of conflict and litigation that
impacted tribes, cities, farmers, companies and citizens for 50
years. Governor Katie Hobbs signed the Northeastern Arizona
Indian Water Rights Settlement Agreement and the Yavapai-Apache
Nation Water Rights Settlement Agreement on Nov. 19. The two
tribal agreements signify the end of water rights solutions
being litigated in state court since 1974, according to a news
release. The tribal settlements “mark a critical milestone” in
ensuring reliable and sustainable water supplies to the Navajo
Nation, the Hopi Tribe, the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe, and
the Yavapai Apache Nation, according to a news release.
The Biden administration has announced a range of options for
new rules to address chronic water shortages and low reservoir
levels on the Colorado River, a vital water source for seven
Western states that has dwindled during more than two decades
of drought compounded by climate change. The Interior
Department released four alternatives for new long-term rules
aimed at dealing with potential shortages after 2026, when the
current operating rules expire. The announcement of the
proposed alternatives represents one of the Biden
administration’s final steps to outline potential paths toward
reaching a consensus among California and the six other states,
as well as the region’s 30 Native tribes.
The race to get bills signed into law before President Joe
Biden leaves office is on, and two water bills sponsored by
Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Denver, are trying to get on that
list. The first is an extension of the Colorado River Basin
System Conservation Act, which earlier this year put $125
million into the system conservation pilot program operated by
the Upper Colorado River Commission. Under the latest
iteration, the act would be extended until 2026. The system
conservation pilot program is a voluntary, temporary, and
compensated agreement to conserve consumptive use (or
depletion) of agricultural, municipal, or industrial water. It
was tested between 2015 and 2018 and allowed lapses, but it was
restarted in 2023. However, the program does not require water
conservation targets. The second, the Drought Preparedness Act,
would Reauthorize the Reclamation States Emergency
Drought Relief Act through 2028.
Since Dwight Eisenhower was president, tiny Middle Park Water
Conservancy District has hoarded a precious gem: 20,000
acre-feet of water rights on Troublesome Creek, near Kremmling,
and the authority to build a dam for it. In October,
Middle Park gave its treasure to a private rancher. For
$10. The Middle Park district, which primarily
serves ranchers and hay growers in Grand and Summit counties,
has only a few hundred thousand dollars of revenue each year,
and no ability to raise potentially tens of millions of dollars
for environmental permitting and hundreds of millions for
construction, the district’s attorney said. The private
buyer, Circle C Ranch Kremmling LLC, owns the property on
Colorado River tributary fork East Troublesome Creek northeast
of Kremmling, where Middle Park had been planning a dam for
decades.
The Cedar City Council approved a purchase of 15-acre feet of
water for over $240,000 at last Wednesday’s meeting. The
proposal was first presented at the Nov. 6 City Council
meeting. Manager Paul Bittmenn said that Kimbal Holt with KS
Cedar Ridge planned to sell 15-acre feet of water rights. Cedar
City had a right of first refusal, meaning the city had a right
to purchase the water before a transaction could be entered
with a third party. The total cost of the water rights
was $240,750.00 — $16,050 per acre-foot, Bittmenn said.
The city and the company will split the closing costs, and the
purchase was set to close on Nov. 15.
Arizona and California officials are turning to the threat of a
“compact call” in the Colorado River Basin to ratchet up the
pressure on four Upper Basin states, including Colorado, in
stalled negotiations over how the river will be managed in the
future. The century-old legal concept raises the prospect of
forced water cuts in the Upper Basin states if inter-basin
water sharing obligations aren’t met. The details of how a
compact call would work are not entirely clear — it has never
been enforced since it was first introduced in the 1922
Colorado River Compact.
Toilet water in Los Angeles will soon reduce the strain on Lake
Mead, thanks in part to a $26.2 million boost that was
announced Monday. The recycled water will benefit Nevada and
other states and tribes that depend on the lake for drinking
water. Named the Pure Water Southern California project, when
it’s active, it will generate enough water to serve nearly
386,000 households, according to a news release from U.S. Sen.
Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.
Rudy Fischer, a recent transplant to the state and a former
businessman, will become Arizona’s newest voice in the state’s
struggle with historic uncertainty on the Colorado River.
Fischer won a place as the only new member on the Central
Arizona Water Conservation District’s board of directors this
year. He will replace Jennifer Martin-McLeod, who did not seek
re-election. Fischer will begin his six-year term on Jan. 17,
becoming one of 15 board members, including four incumbents who
were returned to office. The election adds a relative
newcomer to Arizona’s water world as the state forges through
interstate negotiations over strained supplies in the Colorado
River. The CAWCD board, which can influence Arizona’s
negotiating positions on the river, will take on the arrival of
critical long-term water cuts on the river during Fischer’s
term.
Just outside Canyonlands National Park in San Juan County,
rancher Matt Redd walked to a spot where two of his pastures
meet. One side is growing alfalfa and other traditional grazing
crops with wheel line irrigation. The other is home to a
lesser-known grain called Kernza. … Perhaps the most
beautiful thing about it, though, is how little water Kernza
needs compared to the neighboring pasture. Even though this
summer brought Utah record-breaking heat, Redd didn’t
water it from July through September. … That means more
of his ranch’s water can stay in nearby creeks that flow toward
the Colorado River.
Recovery from a long-term drought in an arid region almost
never occurs on a straight line, and the current drought
conditions facing Arizona are proof of that. After one truly
boffo winter-moisture season and one pretty good season,
Arizona and the Southwest overall appear headed back into the
drought conditions we have come to know oh so well. Those were
the conclusions of the Arizona Drought Interagency Coordinative
Group, which met on November 4 and concluded that for at least
the next six months, the drought is here to stay.
The 2024
Colorado River Water Leaders cohort completed its
seven-month program with policy recommendations
involving ”augmentation” – projects that increase the
availability and supply of water – as the Colorado River Basin
grows hotter and drier. … Their report provides
a roadmap to promote a purposeful, continuing dialogue around
the deployment of water augmentation projects, such as seawater
and brackish desalination, water recycling and cloud
seeding. The report outlines ways to reduce barriers
to implementation through strategies that enable consensus
around goals, information sharing and funding support.
The 2024 Colorado River Water
Leaders cohort completed its seven-month program
with policy recommendations involving ”augmentation” –
projects that increase the availability and supply of water – as
the Colorado River Basin grows hotter and drier.
The cohort of
12 up-and-coming leaders included engineers,
lawyers, resource specialists and others working for public,
private and non-governmental organizations from across the
river’s basin. The cohort had full editorial control to choose
its recommendations.
Water from Colorado’s West Slope basins plays a vital role in
supporting the economy and natural environment across seven
western U.S. states, but a new study finds that even under
modest climate projections, the basins face a potential tipping
point where traditional water delivery levels to Lake Powell
and other critical areas may no longer be sustainable. The
study, published Nov. 9 in the journal Earth’s Future, is the
largest and most comprehensive exploratory modeling analysis of
drought vulnerability in the Colorado West Slope basins – six
watersheds along the Colorado River that feed the Lake Powell
reservoir and support a $5 billion annual agriculture economy.
The finding comes at a critical time as state and federal
policymakers negotiate water-sharing agreements set to expire
in the coming years.
State water management officials must work more closely with
local agencies to properly prepare California for the effects
of climate change, water scientists say. Golden State
officials said in the newly revised California Water
Plan that as the nation’s most populous state, California
is too diverse and complex for a singular approach to manage a
vast water network. On Monday, they recommended expanding the
work to better manage the state’s precious water resources —
including building better partnerships with communities most at
risk during extreme drought and floods and improving critical
infrastructure for water storage, treatment and distribution
among different regions and watersheds.
Six tribes in the Upper Colorado River Basin, including two in
Colorado, have gained long-awaited access to discussions about
the basin’s water issues — talks that were formerly
limited to states and the federal government. Under an
agreement finalized this month, the tribes will meet every two
months to discuss Colorado River issues with an interstate
water policy commission, the Upper Colorado River Commission,
or UCRC. It’s the first time in the commission’s 76-year
history that tribes have been formally included, and the timing
is key as negotiations about the river’s future intensify.
… Most immediately, the commission wants a key number:
How much water goes unused by tribes and flows down to the
Lower Basin?
Sustaining the American Southwest is the Colorado River. But
demand, damming, diversion, and drought are draining this vital
water resource at alarming rates. The future of water in the
region – particularly from the Colorado River – was top of mind
at the 10th Annual Eccles Family Rural West Conference, an
event organized by the Bill Lane Center for the American West
that brings together policymakers, practitioners, and scholars
to discuss solutions to urgent problems facing rural Western
regions.
Explore the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs is the focus of this tour.
Hilton Garden Inn Las Vegas Strip South
7830 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89123
A much-anticipated water bill brought by one of the most
powerful lawmakers on Capitol Hill became public Thursday.
Senate President Stuart Adams’s SB 211, titled “Generational
Water Infrastructure Amendments,” seeks to secure a water
supply for decades to come. It forms a new council comprised of
leadership from the state’s biggest water districts that will
figure out Utah’s water needs for the next 50 to 75 years. It
also creates a new governor-appointed “Utah Water Agent” with a
$1 million annual budget that will “coordinate with the council
to ensure Utah’s generational water needs are met,” according
to a news release. But combing through the text of the bill
reveals the water agent’s main job will be finding an
out-of-state water supply. … The bill also notes the
water agent won’t meddle with existing water compacts with
other states on the Bear and Colorado rivers.
Moab is a growing town of 5,300 that up to 5 million people
visit each year to hike nearby Arches and Canyonlands national
parks, ride mountain bikes and all-terrain vehicles, or raft
the Colorado River. Like any western resort town, it
desperately needs affordable housing. What locals say it
doesn’t need is a high-end development on a sandbar projecting
into the Colorado River, where groves of cottonwoods, willows
and hackberries flourish. “Delusional,” shameful” or
“outrageous” is what many locals call this Kane Creek
Preservation and Development project. - Written by Mary Moran, a contributor to Writers on
the Range
The attention is on Southern California right now, but an
atmospheric river’s path will extend inland with potential
flooding — and possible drought relief. If you’re watching the
weather, it’s still a little early to tell whether these storms
will go where they can hope Las Vegas the most. That’s anywhere
in the Upper Colorado River Basin, where there’s a chance they
could produce snow to help the river that supplies 90% of the
water used in Southern Nevada. … The paths of this
year’s atmospheric rivers are unlike the ones that slammed
the Sierras last year. Those storms carried snow straight
east through Northern Nevada and Utah, feeding the Rocky
Mountains with snowpack levels that reached 160% of normal by
the end of winter.
Water regulation in Arizona has devolved into a game of
chicken. The governor and farmers are rivals revving their
engines, hoping their opponent will flinch first. Caught
in the middle is Gila Bend, a groundwater basin south of
Buckeye, where the state could decide to impose its most
stringent form of regulation, whether folks like it or not.
Both sides are using Gila Bend as a bargaining chip to win
support for competing legislative proposals. But to what
end? - Written by Joanna Allhands, Arizona Republic digital
opinions editor
Colorado legislators in 2022 passed a bill that delivered $2
million to programs across the state for removal of turf in
urban areas classified as nonfunctional. By that, legislators
mean Kentucky bluegrass and other thirsty-grass species that
were meant to be seen but rarely, if ever, otherwise
used. Now, they are taking the next step. The Colorado
Senate on Tuesday, Jan. 30 voted in favor of a
bill, Senate Bill 24-005, that would prevent thirsty turf
species from being planted in certain places that rarely, if
ever, get foot traffic, except perhaps to be mowed.
The U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee is holding an
important hearing Thursday on S. 2385, a bill to
refine the tools needed to help Tribal communities gain access
to something that most non-Indian communities in the western
United States have long taken for granted: federally subsidized
systems to deliver safe, clean drinking water to our homes.
… This is the sort of bill (there’s a companion on the
House side) that makes a huge amount of sense, but could easily
get sidetracked in the chaos of Congress. The ideal path is for
the crucial vetting to happen in a process such as Thursday’s
hearing, and then to attach it to one of those omnibus things
that Congress uses these days to get non-controversial stuff
done. Clean water for Native communities should pretty clearly
be non-controversial.
For as long as he can remember, Rob Sowby has heard people call
Utah the second-driest state in the nation. Over the years,
that claim has become nearly inescapable, echoed by everyone
from state departments, city governments and water conservancy
districts to national news outlets without a clear citation for
what data it’s based on. … Now a Brigham Young
University civil engineering assistant professor focused on
sustainable water supplies, he decided to get to the bottom of
it. Using precipitation data, he found that Utah is actually
the nation’s third-driest state, behind Nevada and
Arizona.
The Topock Marsh has seen a significant drop in water levels
recently, with dry patches visible and locals concerned about
the effects on wildlife. The 4,000-acre Bureau of Reclamation
marsh is adjacent to the Colorado River in the Havasu National
Wildlife Refuge. Managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
it serves as a recreation area and wildlife habitat for the
Tri-state.
Apply for our 2024 Colorado River Water
Leaders program to deepen your knowledge
of the inconic Southwest river, build leadership
skills and develop policy ideas with a cohort to improve
management of the region’s most crucial natural resource.
Our biennial Water Leaders program, part of our Colorado River Project,
selects rising stars from the seven states that rely on
the river – Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada,
Utah and Wyoming.
Get an overview of the program and tips on applying by watching
this virtual Q&A
session. Applications are due Jan. 22,
2024 and you can find
application materials here along with mandatory
program dates.
“I highly recommend the program to emerging water leaders.
The program’s immersive experience, relationship building and
mentorship opportunities cultivate leadership and collaborative
skills crucial for addressing complex challenges faced by all
those who rely upon the Colorado River now and into the
future.”
– JB Hamby, Class of ‘22 and Chair of the
Colorado River Board of California
After more than two decades of
drought, water utilities serving the largest urban regions in the
arid Southwest are embracing a drought-proof source of drinking
water long considered a supply of last resort: purified sewage.
Water supplies have tightened to the point that Phoenix and the
water supplier for 19 million Southern California residents are
racing to adopt an expensive technology called “direct potable
reuse” or “advanced purification” to reduce their reliance on
imported water from the dwindling Colorado River.
Join a
virtual Q&A session Dec. 7 to learn more about
applying for our 2024 Colorado River Water
Leaders cohort.
The biennial
program, which will run from March to September next
year, selects about a dozen rising stars from the
seven states that rely on the river – California, Nevada,
Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico.
The climate-driven shrinking of the
Colorado River is expanding the influence of Native American
tribes over how the river’s flows are divided among cities, farms
and reservations across the Southwest.
The tribes are seeing the value of their largely unused river
water entitlements rise as the Colorado dwindles, and they are
gaining seats they’ve never had at the water bargaining table as
government agencies try to redress a legacy of exclusion.
The application window is now open
for our Colorado River Water
Leaders program, which will run from March to
September next year.
Our biennial program, part of our Colorado River Project,
is patterned after our highly successful California Water Leaders
programand selects rising stars
from the seven states that rely on the river -
California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New
Mexico – to take part in a cohort.
During the seven-month program designed for working
professionals, the cohort members explore issues surrounding the
iconic Southwest river, deepen their water knowledge and build
leadership skills.
“I highly recommend the program to emerging water leaders.
The program’s immersive experience, relationship building and
mentorship opportunities cultivate leadership and collaborative
skills crucial for addressing complex challenges faced by all
those who rely upon the Colorado River now and into the
future.”
– JB Hamby, Class of ‘22 & Chair of the Colorado River
Board of California
The states of the Lower Colorado
River Basin have traditionally played an oversized role in
tapping the lifeline that supplies 40 million people in the West.
California, Nevada and Arizona were quicker to build major canals
and dams and negotiated a landmark deal that requires the Upper
Basin to send predictable flows through the Grand Canyon, even
during dry years.
But with the federal government threatening unprecedented water
cuts amid decades of drought and declining reservoirs, the Upper
Basin states of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico are
muscling up to protect their shares of an overallocated river
whose average flows in the Upper Basin have already dropped
20 percent over the last century.
They have formed new agencies to better monitor their interests,
moved influential Colorado River veterans into top negotiating
posts and improved their relationships with Native American
tribes that also hold substantial claims to the river.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hilton Garden Inn Las Vegas Strip South
7830 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89123
This special Foundation water tour journeyed along the Eastern Sierra from the Truckee River to Mono Lake, through the Owens Valley and into the Mojave Desert to explore a major source of water for Southern California, this year’s snowpack and challenges for towns, farms and the environment.
When the Colorado River Compact was
signed 100 years ago, the negotiators for seven Western states
bet that the river they were dividing would have ample water to
meet everyone’s needs – even those not seated around the table.
A century later, it’s clear the water they bet on is not there.
More than two decades of drought, lake evaporation and overuse of
water have nearly drained the river’s two anchor reservoirs, Lake
Powell on the Arizona-Utah border and Lake Mead near Las Vegas.
Climate change is rendering the basin drier, shrinking spring
runoff that’s vital for river flows, farms, tribes and cities
across the basin – and essential for refilling reservoirs.
The states that endorsed the Colorado River Compact in 1922 – and
the tribes and nation of Mexico that were excluded from the table
– are now straining to find, and perhaps more importantly accept,
solutions on a river that may offer just half of the water that
the Compact assumed would be available. And not only are
solutions not coming easily, the relationships essential for
compromise are getting more frayed.
With 25 years of experience working
on the Colorado River, Chuck Cullom is used to responding to
myriad challenges that arise on the vital lifeline that seven
states, more than two dozen tribes and the country of Mexico
depend on for water. But this summer problems on the
drought-stressed river are piling up at a dizzying pace:
Reservoirs plummeting to record low levels, whether Hoover Dam
and Glen Canyon Dam can continue to release water and produce
hydropower, unprecedented water cuts and predatory smallmouth
bass threatening native fish species in the Grand Canyon.
“Holy buckets, Batman!,” said Cullom, executive director of the
Upper Colorado River Commission. “I mean, it’s just on and on and
on.”
As water interests in the Colorado
River Basin prepare to negotiate a new set of operating
guidelines for the drought-stressed river, Amelia Flores wants
her Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) to be involved in the
discussion. And she wants CRIT seated at the negotiating table
with something invaluable to offer on a river facing steep cuts
in use: its surplus water.
CRIT, whose reservation lands in California and Arizona are
bisected by the Colorado River, has some of the most senior water
rights on the river. But a federal law enacted in the late 1700s,
decades before any southwestern state was established, prevents
most tribes from sending any of its water off its reservation.
The restrictions mean CRIT, which holds the rights to nearly a
quarter of the entire state of Arizona’s yearly allotment of
river water, is missing out on financial gain and the chance to
help its river partners.
Momentum is building for a unique
interstate deal that aims to transform wastewater from Southern
California homes and business into relief for the stressed
Colorado River. The collaborative effort to add resiliency to a
river suffering from overuse, drought and climate change is being
shaped across state lines by some of the West’s largest water
agencies.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
There is just about a week left to
apply for our inaugural Colorado River Water Leaders
program in 2022, which marks the 100th anniversary
of the Colorado River Compact.
The biennial program is modeled after our highly successful
Water Leaders
program in California, now 25 years strong.
Our Colorado River program will select rising stars from the
seven U.S. states and tribal nations that rely on the river -
California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New
Mexico – to participate in the seven-month class designed for
working professionals. Class members will explore issues
surrounding the iconic Southwest river, deepen their water
knowledge and build leadership skills.
Climate scientist Brad Udall calls
himself the skunk in the room when it comes to the Colorado
River. Armed with a deck of PowerPoint slides and charts that
highlight the Colorado River’s worsening math, the Colorado State
University scientist offers a grim assessment of the river’s
future: Runoff from the river’s headwaters is declining, less
water is flowing into Lake Powell – the key reservoir near the
Arizona-Utah border – and at the same time, more water is being
released from the reservoir than it can sustainably provide.
The lower Colorado River has virtually every drop allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
For more than 20 years, Tanya
Trujillo has been immersed in the many challenges of the Colorado
River, the drought-stressed lifeline for 40 million people from
Denver to Los Angeles and the source of irrigation water for more
than 5 million acres of winter lettuce, supermarket melons and
other crops.
Trujillo has experience working in both the Upper and Lower
Basins of the Colorado River, basins that split the river’s water
evenly but are sometimes at odds with each other. She was a
lawyer for the state of New Mexico, one of four states in the
Upper Colorado River Basin, when key operating guidelines for
sharing shortages on the river were negotiated in 2007. She later
worked as executive director for the Colorado River Board of
California, exposing her to the different perspectives and
challenges facing California and the other states in the river’s
Lower Basin.
Known for our popular Water Leaders
program in California – about to mark its 25th anniversary – we
are now launching a Colorado
River Water Leaders program in 2022, the 100th
anniversary of the Colorado River Compact.
The biennial program will select rising stars from the seven
U.S. states that rely on the river – California, Nevada, Arizona,
Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico – to participate in the
seven-month class designed for working professionals. Class
members will explore issues surrounding the iconic Southwest
river, deepen their water knowledge and build leadership
skills.
Water is flowing once again
to the Colorado River’s delta in Mexico, a vast region that
was once a natural splendor before the iconic Western river was
dammed and diverted at the turn of the last century, essentially
turning the delta into a desert.
In 2012, the idea emerged that water could be intentionally sent
down the river to inundate the delta floodplain and regenerate
native cottonwood and willow trees, even in an overallocated
river system. Ultimately, dedicated flows of river water were
brokered under cooperative
efforts by the U.S. and Mexican governments.
Las Vegas, known for its searing summertime heat and glitzy casino fountains, is projected to get even hotter in the coming years as climate change intensifies. As temperatures rise, possibly as much as 10 degrees by end of the century, according to some models, water demand for the desert community is expected to spike. That is not good news in a fast-growing region that depends largely on a limited supply of water from an already drought-stressed Colorado River.
When you oversee the largest
supplier of treated water in the United States, you tend to think
big.
Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water
District of Southern California for the last 15 years, has
focused on diversifying his agency’s water supply and building
security through investment. That means looking beyond MWD’s
borders to ensure the reliable delivery of water to two-thirds of
California’s population.
Twenty years ago, the Colorado River
Basin’s hydrology began tumbling into a historically bad stretch.
The weather turned persistently dry. Water levels in the system’s
anchor reservoirs of Lake Powell and Lake Mead plummeted. A river
system relied upon by nearly 40 million people, farms and
ecosystems across the West was in trouble. And there was no guide
on how to respond.
Managing water resources in the Colorado River Basin is not for the timid or those unaccustomed to big challenges. Careers are devoted to responding to all the demands put upon the river: water supply, hydropower, recreation and environmental protection.
All of this while the Basin endures a seemingly endless drought and forecasts of increasing dryness in the future.
Practically every drop of water that flows through the meadows, canyons and plains of the Colorado River Basin has reams of science attached to it. Snowpack, streamflow and tree ring data all influence the crucial decisions that guide water management of the iconic Western river every day.
Dizzying in its scope, detail and complexity, the scientific information on the Basin’s climate and hydrology has been largely scattered in hundreds of studies and reports. Some studies may conflict with others, or at least appear to. That’s problematic for a river that’s a lifeline for 40 million people and more than 4 million acres of irrigated farmland.
The Colorado River Compact of 1922
marked the first time in U.S. history that more than three states
negotiated an agreement among themselves to apportion the waters
of a stream or river.
The compact is the cornerstone of the “Law of the River” – a
complex set of interstate compacts, federal laws, court decisions
and decrees, contracts and federal actions that regulate use of
the Colorado River.
Out of sight and out of mind to most
people, the Salton Sea in California’s far southeast corner has
challenged policymakers and local agencies alike to save the
desert lake from becoming a fetid, hyper-saline water body
inhospitable to wildlife and surrounded by clouds of choking
dust.
The sea’s problems stretch beyond its boundaries in Imperial and
Riverside counties and threaten to undermine multistate
management of the Colorado River. A 2019 Drought Contingency Plan for the
Lower Colorado River Basin was briefly stalled when the Imperial
Irrigation District, holding the river’s largest water
allocation, balked at participating in the plan because, the
district said, it ignored the problems of the Salton Sea.
Colorado is home to the headwaters
of the Colorado River and the water policy decisions made in the
Centennial State reverberate throughout the river’s sprawling
basin that stretches south to Mexico. The stakes are huge in a
basin that serves 40 million people, and responding to the water
needs of the economy, productive agriculture, a robust
recreational industry and environmental protection takes
expertise, leadership and a steady hand.
Sprawled across a desert expanse
along the Utah-Arizona border, Lake Powell’s nearly 100-foot high
bathtub ring etched on its sandstone walls belie the challenges
of a major Colorado River reservoir at less than half-full. How
those challenges play out as demand grows for the river’s water
amid a changing climate is fueling simmering questions about
Powell’s future.
This event explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
The Colorado River is arguably one
of the hardest working rivers on the planet, supplying water to
40 million people and a large agricultural economy in the West.
But it’s under duress from two decades of drought and decisions
made about its management will have exceptional ramifications for
the future, especially as impacts from climate change are felt.
Every other year we hold an
invitation-only Colorado River Symposium attended by various
stakeholders from across the seven Western states and Mexico that
rely on the iconic river. We host this three-day event in Santa
Fe, N.M., where the 1922 Colorado River Compact was signed, as
part of our mission to catalyze critical conversations to build
bridges and inform collaborative decision-making.
The Colorado River Basin’s 20 years
of drought and the dramatic decline in water levels at the
river’s key reservoirs have pressed water managers to adapt to
challenging conditions. But even more extreme — albeit rare —
droughts or floods that could overwhelm water managers may lie
ahead in the Basin as the effects of climate change take hold,
say a group of scientists. They argue that stakeholders who are
preparing to rewrite the operating rules of the river should plan
now for how to handle these so-called “black swan” events so
they’re not blindsided.
Dates are now set for two key
Foundation events to kick off 2020 — our popular Water 101
Workshop, scheduled for Feb. 20 at McGeorge School of Law in
Sacramento, and our Lower Colorado River Tour, which will run
from March 11-13.
In addition, applications will be available by the first week of
October for our 2020 class of Water Leaders, our competitive
yearlong program for early to mid-career up-and-coming water
professionals. To learn more about the program, check out our
Water Leaders program
page.
High in the headwaters of the Colorado River, around the hamlet of Kremmling, Colorado, generations of families have made ranching and farming a way of life, their hay fields and cattle sustained by the river’s flow. But as more water was pulled from the river and sent over the Continental Divide to meet the needs of Denver and other cities on the Front Range, less was left behind to meet the needs of ranchers and fish.
“What used to be a very large river that inundated the land has really become a trickle,” said Mely Whiting, Colorado counsel for Trout Unlimited. “We estimate that 70 percent of the flow on an annual average goes across the Continental Divide and never comes back.”
Summer is a good time to take a
break, relax and enjoy some of the great beaches, waterways and
watersheds around California and the West. We hope you’re getting
a chance to do plenty of that this July.
But in the weekly sprint through work, it’s easy to miss
some interesting nuggets you might want to read. So while we’re
taking a publishing break to work on other water articles planned
for later this year, we want to help you catch up on
Western Water stories from the first half of this year
that you might have missed.
We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls ride over the river, we know not. Ah, well! We may conjecture many things.
~John Wesley Powell
Powell scrawled those words in his journal as he and his expedition paddled their way into the deep walls of the Grand Canyon on a stretch of the Colorado River in August 1869. Three months earlier, the 10-man group had set out on their exploration of the iconic Southwest river by hauling their wooden boats into a major tributary of the Colorado, the Green River in Wyoming, for their trip into the “great unknown,” as Powell described it.
Even as stakeholders in the Colorado River Basin celebrate the recent completion of an unprecedented drought plan intended to stave off a crashing Lake Mead, there is little time to rest. An even larger hurdle lies ahead as they prepare to hammer out the next set of rules that could vastly reshape the river’s future.
Set to expire in 2026, the current guidelines for water deliveries and shortage sharing, launched in 2007 amid a multiyear drought, were designed to prevent disputes that could provoke conflict.
Bruce Babbitt, the former Arizona
governor and secretary of the Interior, has been a thoughtful,
provocative and sometimes forceful voice in some of the most
high-profile water conflicts over the last 40 years, including
groundwater management in Arizona and the reduction of
California’s take of the Colorado River. In 2016, former
California Gov. Jerry Brown named Babbitt as a special adviser to
work on matters relating to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and
the Delta tunnels plan.
For the bulk of her career, Jayne
Harkins has devoted her energy to issues associated with the
management of the Colorado River, both with the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and with the Colorado River Commission of Nevada.
Now her career is taking a different direction. Harkins, 58, was
appointed by President Trump last August to take the helm of the
United States section of the U.S.-Mexico agency that oversees
myriad water matters between the two countries as they seek to
sustainably manage the supply and water quality of the Colorado
River, including its once-thriving Delta in Mexico, and other
rivers the two countries share. She is the first woman to be
named the U.S. Commissioner of the International Boundary and
Water Commission for either the United States or Mexico in the
commission’s 129-year history.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs is the focus of this tour.
Silverton Hotel
3333 Blue Diamond Road
Las Vegas, NV 89139
Imported water from the Sierra
Nevada and the Colorado River built Southern California. Yet as
drought, climate change and environmental concerns render those
supplies increasingly at risk, the Southland’s cities have ramped
up their efforts to rely more on local sources and less on
imported water.
Far and away the most ambitious goal has been set by the city of
Santa Monica, which in 2014 embarked on a course to be virtually
water independent through local sources by 2023. In the 1990s,
Santa Monica was completely dependent on imported water. Now, it
derives more than 70 percent of its water locally.
The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.
These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.
We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:
As stakeholders labor to nail down
effective and durable drought contingency plans for the Colorado
River Basin, they face a stark reality: Scientific research is
increasingly pointing to even drier, more challenging times
ahead.
The latest sobering assessment landed the day after Thanksgiving,
when U.S. Global Change Research Program’s Fourth National Climate
Assessment concluded that Earth’s climate is changing rapidly
compared to the pace of natural variations that have occurred
throughout its history, with greenhouse gas emissions largely the
cause.
As the Colorado River Basin becomes
drier and shortage conditions loom, one great variable remains:
How much of the river’s water belongs to Native American tribes?
Native Americans already use water from the Colorado River and
its tributaries for a variety of purposes, including leasing it
to non-Indian users. But some tribes aren’t using their full
federal Indian reserved water right and others have water rights
claims that have yet to be resolved. Combined, tribes have rights
to more water than some states in the Colorado River Basin.
The Colorado River Basin is more
than likely headed to unprecedented shortage in 2020 that could
force supply cuts to some states, but work is “furiously”
underway to reduce the risk and avert a crisis, Bureau of
Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman told an audience of
California water industry people.
During a keynote address at the Water Education Foundation’s
Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento, Burman said there is
opportunity for Colorado River Basin states to control their
destiny, but acknowledged that in water, there are no guarantees
that agreement can be reached.
Water means life for all the Grand Canyon’s inhabitants, including the many varieties of insects that are a foundation of the ecosystem’s food web. But hydropower operations upstream on the Colorado River at Glen Canyon Dam, in Northern Arizona near the Utah border, disrupt the natural pace of insect reproduction as the river rises and falls, sometimes dramatically. Eggs deposited at the river’s edge are often left high and dry and their loss directly affects available food for endangered fish such as the humpback chub.
Amy Haas recently became the first non-engineer and the first woman to serve as executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission in its 70-year history, putting her smack in the center of a host of daunting challenges facing the Upper Colorado River Basin.
Yet those challenges will be quite familiar to Haas, an attorney who for the past year has served as deputy director and general counsel of the commission. (She replaced longtime Executive Director Don Ostler). She has a long history of working within interstate Colorado River governance, including representing New Mexico as its Upper Colorado River commissioner and playing a central role in the negotiation of the recently signed U.S.-Mexico agreement known as Minute 323.
Nowhere is the domino effect in
Western water policy played out more than on the Colorado River,
and specifically when it involves the Lower Basin states of
California, Nevada and Arizona. We are seeing that play out now
as the three states strive to forge a Drought Contingency Plan.
Yet that plan can’t be finalized until Arizona finds a unifying
voice between its major water players, an effort you can read
more about in the latest in-depth article of Western Water.
Even then, there are some issues to resolve just within
California.
It’s high-stakes time in Arizona. The state that depends on the
Colorado River to help supply its cities and farms — and is
first in line to absorb a shortage — is seeking a unified plan
for water supply management to join its Lower Basin neighbors,
California and Nevada, in a coordinated plan to preserve water
levels in Lake Mead before
they run too low.
If the lake’s elevation falls below 1,075 feet above sea level,
the secretary of the Interior would declare a shortage and
Arizona’s deliveries of Colorado River water would be reduced by
320,000 acre-feet. Arizona says that’s enough to serve about 1
million households in one year.
As California embarks on its unprecedented mission to harness groundwater pumping, the Arizona desert may provide one guide that local managers can look to as they seek to arrest years of overdraft.
Groundwater is stressed by a demand that often outpaces natural and artificial recharge. In California, awareness of groundwater’s importance resulted in the landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in 2014 that aims to have the most severely depleted basins in a state of balance in about 20 years.
We explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop
of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad
sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and
climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs was the focus of this tour.
Hampton Inn Tropicana
4975 Dean Martin Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89118
Dramatic swings in weather patterns
over the past few years in California are stark reminders of
climate variability and regional vulnerability. Alternating years
of drought and intense rain events make long-term planning for
storing and distributing water a challenging task.
Current weather forecasting capabilities provide details for
short time horizons. Attend the Paleo Drought
Workshop in San Pedro on April 19 to learn more about
research efforts to improve sub-seasonal to seasonal
precipitation forecasting, known as S2S, and how those models
could provide more useful weather scenarios for resource
managers.
A drought has lingered in the
Colorado River Basin since 2000, causing reservoir storage to
decline from nearly full to about half of capacity. So far this
year, a meager snowpack in the Rocky Mountains hasn’t helped
much.
In fact, forecasters say this winter will likely go down as the
sixth-driest on record for the river system that supplies water
to seven states, including California, and Mexico.
On our Lower
Colorado River Tour, April 11-13, you will meet with water
managers from the three Lower Basin states: Nevada, Arizona and
California. The three states are working to finalize a Drought
Contingency Plan to take voluntary cuts to keep Lake Mead, the
nation’s largest reservoir, from hitting critical levels and
causing a shortage declaration.
California’s 2012-2016 drought
revealed vulnerabilities for water users throughout the state,
and the long-term record suggests more challenges may lie ahead.
An April 19
workshop in San Pedro will highlight new information about
drought durations in Southern California watersheds dating
back centuries.
Most people see the Grand Canyon from the rim, thousands of feet above where the Colorado River winds through it for almost 300 miles.
But to travel it afloat a raft is to experience the wondrous majesty of the canyon and the river itself while gaining perspective about geology, natural beauty and the passage of time.
Beginning at Lees Ferry, some 30,000 people each year launch downriver on commercial or private trips. Before leaving, they are dutifully briefed by a National Park Service ranger who explains to them about the unique environment that awaits them, how to keep it protected and, most importantly, how to protect themselves.
They also are told about the pair of ravens that will inevitably follow them through the canyon, seizing every opportunity to scrounge food.
Tickets are now on sale for the Water Education Foundation’s April 11-13 tour of the Lower Colorado River.
Don’t miss this opportunity to visit key sites along one of the nation’s most famous rivers, including a private tour of Hoover Dam, Central Arizona Project’s Mark Wilmer pumping plant and the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge. The tour also visits the Salton Sea, Slab City, the All-American Canal and farming regions in the Imperial and Coachella valleys.
Drought and climate change are having a noticeable impact on the
Colorado River Basin, and that is posing potential challenges to
those in the Southwestern United States and Mexico who rely on
the river.
In the just-released Winter 2017-18 edition of River
Report, writer Gary Pitzer examines what scientists
project will be the impact of climate change on the Colorado
River Basin, and how water managers are preparing for a future of
increasing scarcity.
Rising temperatures from climate change are having a noticeable
effect on how much water is flowing down the Colorado River. Read
the latest River Report to learn more about what’s
happening, and how water managers are responding.
This issue of Western Water discusses the challenges
facing the Colorado River Basin resulting from persistent
drought, climate change and an overallocated river, and how water
managers and others are trying to face the future.
This three-day, two-night tour explored the lower Colorado River
where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand
is growing from myriad sources — increasing population,
declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs is the focus of this tour.
Best Western McCarran Inn
4970 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89119
The Colorado River Delta once spanned nearly 2 million acres and
stretched from the northern tip of the Gulf of California in
Mexico to Southern California’s Salton Sea. Today it’s one-tenth
that size, yet still an important estuary, wildlife habitat and
farming region even though Colorado River flows rarely reach the
sea.
Since 2000, the Colorado River Basin has experienced an historic,
extended drought causing reservoir storage in the Colorado River
system to decline from nearly full to about half of capacity. For
the Lower Basin, a key point has been to maintain the level of
Lake Mead to prevent a shortage declaration.
A healthy snowfall in the Rockies has reduced the odds of a
shortage this year, but the basin states still must come to terms
with a static supply and growing demands, as well as future
impacts from climate change.
On our Lower
Colorado River Tour, April 5-7, you will meet with water
managers from the three Lower Basin states: Nevada, Arizona and
California. Federal, state and local agencies will update you on
the latest hydrologic conditions and how recent storms might
change plans for water supply and storage.
A troublesome invasive species is
the quagga mussel, a tiny freshwater mollusk that attaches itself
to water utility infrastructure and reproduces at a rapid rate,
causing damage to pipes and pumps.
First found in the Great Lakes in 1988 (dumped with ballast water
from overseas ships), the quagga mussel along with the zebra
mussel are native to the rivers and lakes of eastern Europe and
western Asia, including the Black, Caspian and Azov Seas and the
Dneiper River drainage of Ukraine and Ponto-Caspian
Sea.
This issue of Western Water examines the ongoing effort
between the United States and Mexico to develop a
new agreement to the 1944 Treaty that will continue the
binational cooperation on constructing Colorado River
infrastructure, storing water in Lake Mead and providing instream
flows for the Colorado River Delta.
As vital as the Colorado River is to the United States and
Mexico, so is the ongoing process by which the two countries
develop unique agreements to better manage the river and balance
future competing needs.
The prospect is challenging. The river is over allocated as urban
areas and farmers seek to stretch every drop of their respective
supplies. Since a historic treaty between the two countries was
signed in 1944, the United States and Mexico have periodically
added a series of arrangements to the treaty called minutes that
aim to strengthen the binational ties while addressing important
water supply, water quality and environmental concerns.
Lake Havasu is a reservoir on the Colorado River that supplies
water to the Colorado River
Aqueduct and Central Arizona Project. It is located at
the California/Arizona border, approximately 150 miles southeast
of Las Vegas, Nevada and 30 miles southeast of Needles,
California.
Situated in southwest Riverside County near the Santa Ana
Mountains – about 60 miles southeast of Los Angeles – Lake
Mathews is a
major reservoir in Southern California.
As one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world,
the Imperial Valley
receives its water from the Colorado River via the
All-American Canal. Rainfall is scarce in the desert region at
less than three inches per year and groundwater is of little
value.
This issue looks at the historic drought that has gripped the
Colorado River Basin since 2000 and discusses the lessons
learned, the continuing challenges and what the future might
hold.
The dramatic decline in water levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell
is perhaps the most visible sign of the historic drought that has
gripped the Colorado River Basin for the past 16 years. In 2000,
the reservoirs stood at nearly 100 percent capacity; today, Lake
Powell is at 49 percent capacity while Lake Mead has dropped to
38 percent. Before the late season runoff of Miracle May, it
looked as if Mead might drop low enough to trigger the first-ever
Lower Basin shortage determination in 2016.
Read the excerpt below from the Sept./Oct. 2015 issue along
with the editor’s note. Click here to subscribe to Western
Water and get full access.
This issue looks at the dilemma of the shrinking Salton Sea. The
shallow, briny inland lake at the southeastern edge of California
is slowly evaporating and becoming more saline – threatening the
habitat for fish and birds and worsening air quality as dust from
the dry lakebed is whipped by the constant winds.
The shallow, briny inland lake at the southeastern edge of
California is slowly evaporating and becoming more saline –
threatening the habitat for fish and birds and worsening air
quality as dust from the dry lakebed is whipped by the constant
winds.
(Read this excerpt from the May/June 2015 issue along with
the editor’s note. Click here to
subscribe to Western Water and get full access.)
After much time, study and investment, the task of identifying
solutions to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Colorado
River is underway. People from the Upper and Lower basins
representing all interest groups are preparing to put their
signatures to documents aimed at ensuring the river’s vitality
for the next 50 years and beyond.
This 3-day, 2-night tour followed the course of the
lower Colorado River through Nevada, Arizona and California, and
included a private tour of Hoover Dam.
This issue updates progress on crafting and implementing
California’s 4.4 plan to reduce its use of Colorado River water
by 800,000 acre-feet. The state has used as much as 5.2 million
acre-feet of Colorado River water annually, but under pressure
from Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and the other six states
that share this resource, California’s Colorado River parties
have been trying to close the gap between demand and supply. The
article – delayed to include the latest information from
Babbitt’s Dec.
This issue updates progress on California’s Colorado River Water
Use Plan (commonly called the 4.4 Plan ), with a special focus on
the Salton Sea restoration/water transfer dilemma. It also
includes information on the proposed MWD-Palo Verde Irrigation
District deal, the Colorado River Delta, and the legislative
debate in the national and state capitals.
With passage of the original Dec. 31, 2002, deadline to have a
Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA) in place for the
Colorado River, California suffered a cutback in the surplus
Colorado River flows it had relied upon by years. Further
negotiations followed in an attempt to bring the California
parties to an agreement. This issue examines the history leading
to the QSA, the state of affairs of the so-called 4.4 Plan as of
early March, and gives readers a clearer crystal ball with which
to speculate about California’s water future on the Colorado
River.
This issue of Western Water provides the latest information on
some of the philosophical, political and practical ideas being
discussed on the river. Some of these issues were discussed at
the Water Education Foundation’s Colorado River Symposium, “The
Ties that Bind: Policy and the Evolving Law of the Colorado
River,” held last fall at The Bishop’s Lodge in Santa Fe, New
Mexico – site of negotiations on the 1922 Colorado River Compact.
This issue of Western Water explores the issues
surrounding and the components of the Colorado River Basin
seven-state proposed agreement released Feb. 3 regarding sharing
shortages on the river, and new plans to improve the river’s
management. The article includes excerpts from the Foundation’s
September 2005 Colorado River Symposium held in Santa Fe, New
Mexico.
This issue of Western Water marks the 85th anniversary of the
Colorado River Compact and considers its role in the past and
present on key issues such as federal funding for water projects
and international issues. Much of the content for this magazine
came from the Foundation’s September Colorado River Symposium,
The Colorado River Compact at 85 and Changes on the River.
This card includes information about the Colorado River, who uses
the river, how the river’s water is divided and other pertinent
facts about this vital resource for the Southwest. Beautifully
illustrated with color photographs.
In 1997, the Foundation sponsored a three-day, invitation-only
symposium at Bishop’s Lodge, New Mexico, site of the 1922
Colorado River Compact signing, to discuss the historical
implications of that agreement, current Colorado River issues and
future challenges. The 204-page proceedings features the panel
discussions and presentations on such issues as the Law of the
River, water marketing and environmental restoration.
30-minute DVD that traces the history of the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and its role in the development of the West. Includes
extensive historic footage of farming and the construction of
dams and other water projects, and discusses historic and modern
day issues.
Redesigned in 2017, this beautiful map depicts the seven
Western states that share the Colorado River with Mexico. The
Colorado River supplies water to nearly 40 million people in
Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming
and Mexico. Text on this beautiful, 24×36-inch map, which is
suitable for framing, explains the river’s apportionment, history
and the need to adapt its management for urban growth and
expected climate change impacts.
This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, illustrates the
water resources available for Nevada cities, agriculture and the
environment. It features natural and manmade water resources
throughout the state, including the Truckee and Carson rivers,
Lake Tahoe, Pyramid Lake and the course of the Colorado River
that forms the state’s eastern boundary.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Rights Law, recognized as
the most thorough explanation of California water rights law
available to non-lawyers, traces the authority for water flowing
in a stream or reservoir, from a faucet or into an irrigation
ditch through the complex web of California water rights.
The 20-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Marketing provides
background information on water rights, types of transfers and
critical policy issues surrounding this topic. First published in
1996, the 2005 version offers expanded information on
groundwater banking and conjunctive use, Colorado River
transfers and the role of private companies in California’s
developing water market.
Order in bulk (25 or more copies of the same guide) for a reduced
fee. Contact the Foundation, 916-444-6240, for details.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to California Water provides an
excellent overview of the history of water development and use in
California. It includes sections on flood management; the state,
federal and Colorado River delivery systems; Delta issues; water
rights; environmental issues; water quality; and options for
stretching the water supply such as water marketing and
conjunctive use. New in this 10th edition of the guide is a
section on the human need for water.
A new look for our most popular product! And it’s the perfect
gift for the water wonk in your life.
Our 24×36-inch California Water Map is widely known for being the
definitive poster that shows the integral role water plays in the
state. On this updated version, it is easier to see California’s
natural waterways and man-made reservoirs and aqueducts
– including federally, state and locally funded
projects – the wild and scenic rivers system, and
natural lakes. The map features beautiful photos of
California’s natural environment, rivers, water projects,
wildlife, and urban and agricultural uses and the
text focuses on key issues: water supply, water use, water
projects, the Delta, wild and scenic rivers and the Colorado
River.
This 3-day, 2-night tour follows the course of the lower Colorado River through Nevada, Arizona and California, and includes a private tour of Hoover Dam.
As part of the historic Colorado
River Delta, the Salton Sea regularly filled and dried for
thousands of years due to its elevation of 237 feet below
sea level.
The most recent version of the Salton Sea was formed in 1905 when
the Colorado River broke
through a series of dikes and flooded the seabed for two years,
creating California’s largest inland body of water. The
Salton Sea, which is saltier than the Pacific Ocean, includes 130
miles of shoreline and is larger than Lake Tahoe.
The Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA), signed in 2003,
defined the rights to a portion of Colorado River water for the San
Diego County Water Authority, Coachella Valley Water District,
Imperial Irrigation District and the Metropolitan Water District
of Southern California.
The QSA responded to California consistently using more than its
annual Colorado River entitlement of 4.4 million acre-feet.
Additionally, the water needs of six other Colorado River Basin
states had grown, making the river’s shared use increasingly
crucial.
The Mexican Water Treaty of 1944 committed the U.S. to deliver
1.5 million acre-feet of water to Mexico on an annual basis, plus
an additional 200,000 acre-feet under surplus conditions. The
treaty is overseen by the International Boundary and Water
Commission.
Colorado River water is delivered to Mexico at Morelos Dam,
located 1.1 miles downstream from where the California-Baja
California land boundary intersects the river between the town of
Los Algodones in northwestern Mexico and Yuma County, Ariz.
The Colorado River Delta is located
at the natural terminus of the Colorado River at the Gulf of
California, just south of the U.S.-Mexico border. The desert
ecosystem was formed by silt flushed downstream from the Colorado
and fresh and brackish water mixing at the Gulf.
The Colorado River Delta once covered 9,650 square miles but has
shrunk to less than 1 percent of its original size due to
human-made water diversions.
In 2005, the Interior Department launched a program to recover 27
species in the lower Colorado
River, including seven the federal government has deemed
threatened or endangered or threatened with extinction. The
species include fish, birds, bats, mammals, insects, amphibians,
reptiles, rodents and plants
The Lower Colorado River Multispecies Conservation Program has a
50-year plan to create at least 8,132 acres of new habitat
and restore habitat that has become degraded.
Lee Ferry on the Arizona-Utah border is a key dividing point
between the Colorado River’s Upper and Lower basins.
This split is important when it comes to determining how much
water will be delivered from the Upper Basin to the Lower Basin
[for a description of the Upper and Lower basins, visit the
Colorado River page].
The construction of Glen Canyon Dam
in 1964 created Lake Powell. Both are located in north-central
Arizona near the Utah border. Lake Powell acts as a holding tank
for outflow from the Colorado River Upper Basin States: Colorado,
New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
The water stored in Lake Powell is used for recreation, power
generation and delivering water to the Lower Basin states of
California, Arizona, and Nevada.
John Wesley Powell (1834-1902) was historic and heroic for being
first to lead an expedition down the Colorado River in 1869. A major
who lost an arm in the Civil War Battle of Shiloh, he was an
explorer, geologist, geographer and ethnologist.
California’s Colorado River Water Use Plan (known colloquially as
the 4.4 Plan) intends to wean the state from its reliance on the
surplus flows from the river and return California to its annual
4.4 million acre-feet basic apportionment of the river.
In the past, California has also used more than its basic
apportionment. Consequently, the U.S. Department of
Interior urged California to devise a plan to reduce its water
consumption to its basic entitlement.
In 2005, after six years of severe
drought in the Colorado River Basin, federal officials and
representatives of the seven basin states — California, Arizona,
Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming — began building a
framework to better respond to drought conditions and coordinate
the operations of the basin’s two key reservoirs, Lake Powell and
Lake Mead.
The resulting Interim Guidelines for Lower Basin Shortages and
the Coordinated Operations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead (Interim
Guidelines) identified the conditions for shortage determinations
and details of coordinated reservoir operations. The 2007 Interim
Guidelines remain in effect through Dec. 31, 2025.
The turbulent Colorado River is one
of the most heavily regulated and hardest working rivers in the
world.
Geography
The Colorado falls some 10,000 feet on its way from the Rocky
Mountains to the Gulf of California, helping to sustain a range
of habitats and ecosystems as it weaves through mountains and
deserts.
This printed issue of Western Water examines how the various
stakeholders have begun working together to meet the planning
challenges for the Colorado River Basin, including agreements
with Mexico, increased use of conservation and water marketing,
and the goal of accomplishing binational environmental
restoration and water-sharing programs.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the
Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study and what its
finding might mean for the future of the lifeblood of the
Southwest.
The Colorado River is one of the most heavily relied upon water
supply sources in the world, serving 35 million people in seven
states and Mexico. The river provides water to large cities,
irrigates fields, powers turbines to generate electricity,
thrills recreational enthusiasts and serves as a home for birds,
fish and wildlife.
This printed issue of Western Water explores the
historic nature of some of the key agreements in recent years,
future challenges, and what leading state representatives
identify as potential “worst-case scenarios.” Much of the content
for this issue of Western Water came from the in-depth
panel discussions at the Colorado River Symposium. The Foundation
will publish the full proceedings of the Symposium in 2012.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the
Colorado River drought, and the ongoing institutional and
operational changes underway to maintain the system and meet the
future challenges in the Colorado River Basin.
This printed issue of Western Water explores some of the major
challenges facing Colorado River stakeholders: preparing for
climate change, forging U.S.-Mexico water supply solutions and
dealing with continued growth in the basins states. Much of the
content for this issue of Western Water came from the in-depth
panel discussions at the September 2009 Colorado River Symposium.
This printed copy of Western Water examines the Colorado River
Delta, its ecological significance and the lengths to which
international, state and local efforts are targeted and achieving
environmental restoration while recognizing the needs of the
entire river’s many users.
This issue of Western Water asks whether a groundwater
compact is needed to manage this shared resource today. In the
water-stressed West, there will need to be a recognition of
sharing water resources or a line will need to be drawn in the
sand against future growth.
“In the West, when you touch water, you touch
everything.” – Rep. Wayne Aspinall, D-Colorado, chair,
House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, 1959-1973
Rapid population growth and chronic droughts could augur dramatic
changes for communities along the lower Colorado River. In
Arizona, California and Nevada, a robust economy is spurring
communities to find enough water to sustain the steady pace of
growth. Established cities such as Las Vegas and Phoenix continue
their expansion but there is also activity in smaller, rural
areas on Arizona’s northwest fringe where developers envision
hundreds of thousands of new homes in the coming decades.
With interstate discussions of critical Colorado River issues
seemingly headed for stalemate, Secretary of the Interior Gale
Norton stepped in May 2 to defuse, or at least defer, a
potentially divisive debate over water releases from Lake Powell.
With interstate discussions of critical Colorado River issues
seemingly headed for stalemate, Secretary of the Interior Gale
Norton stepped in May 2 to defuse, or at least defer, a
potentially divisive debate over water releases from Lake Powell.
In a letter to governors of the seven Colorado River Basin
states, Norton preserved the status quo of river operations for
five months, giving states and stakeholders a chance to move back
from the edge before positions had hardened on two key issues:
(1) shortage guidelines for the Lower Basin and (2) Upper Basin/
Lower Basin reservoir operations, particularly at Lake Powell.
But Norton served notice that she wants discussions on those two
issues to continue, possibly outside of the annual operation plan
(AOP) consultation process, which at least one observer described
as unwieldy.
Drawn from a special Colorado River stakeholder symposium held in
January 2002 at The Bishop’s Lodge in Santa Fe, New Mexico, this
article provides an overview of several Colorado River issues
that may or may not be resolved through consensus. Some of these
issues include providing water for the Colorado River Delta,
endangered species, dam re-operation and potential future trends
around the basin as they relate to the California 4.4 Plan,
drought and governance.
The situation is true anywhere: when resources are stretched,
tensions rise. In the arid Southwestern United States, this
resource is water and tensions over it have been ever present
since the westward migration in the 18th Century. Nowhere in this
region has the competition for water been fiercer than in the
Colorado River Basin. Whether it is more water for agriculture,
more water for cities, more water for American Indian tribes or
more water for the environment – there is a continuous quest by
parties to obtain additional supplies of this “liquid gold” from
the Colorado River. Sometimes the avenue chosen to acquire this
desert wealth is the court system, as exemplified by the landmark
Arizona v. California dispute that stretched for over 30 years.
Drawn from a special stakeholder symposium held in September 1999
in Keystone, Colorado, this issue explores how we got to where we
are today on the Colorado River; an era in which the traditional
water development of the past has given way to a more
collaborative approach that tries to protect the environment
while stretching available water supplies. Specific topics
addressed include the role of the Interior secretary in the
basin, California’s 4.4 plan, water marketing and future
challenges identified by participants.
Drawn from a special stakeholder symposium held in September 1999
in Keystone, Colorado, this issue explores how we got to where we
are today on the Colorado River; an era in which the traditional
water development of the past has given way to a more
collaborative approach that tries to protect the environment
while stretching available water supplies.
