Earth Protect Blog

By Conrad Swanson

The Denver Post

Seven Western states and the 40 million people in them that depend on the Colorado River can’t yet agree on how to use less water and on Tuesday federal officials told them to cut even deeper.

The river is drying and the states through which it flows — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah — have been drawing too much water for years, heading toward disaster.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation gave the seven states until Monday to voluntarily find a way to save at least 21% of the river’s annual flows, threatening to take over the process and impose its own cuts. But the states didn’t meet the deadline and experts worry they’re fracturing at a time when they most need to work together.

“They are not singing ‘Kumbaya’ right now,” Kyle Roerink, executive director of the Great Basin Water Network, told The Denver Post. “They’re sharpening their

knives.”

Conditions along the Colorado River are expected to worsen so much in the coming months that they’ve triggered mandatory cuts that the states agreed to in 2007. Officials from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Department of the Interior said in a news conference Tuesday morning that Arizona, Mexico and Nevada are first on the chopping block. Together they must find a way to save an extra 7.5% of the river’s annual flows.

That translates to Arizona needing to conserve an additional 592,000 acre-feet of water, Mexico must save 104,000 acre-feet and Nevada must save 25,000 acrefeet, Chris Cutler, who manages Reclamations’ Water and Power Services Division, said.

An acre-foot is enough water, by volume, to last two average families of four a year.

The now-mandatory cuts required for Arizona, Mexico and Nevada pale in comparison to the 2 million to 4 million acre-feet federal officials had asked states in the Colorado River Basin to voluntarily find a way to save by Monday.

Federal officials shied away from questions about that missed deadline, indicating that the states had perhaps effectively called their bluff.

As of yet, no cuts are required for California, which uses the most water in the basin. That could change, however, if conditions worsen, according to the rules adopted in 2007.

Federal officials acknowledged more must be done to keep water flowing downstream and into the country’s two largest reservoirs.

If levels at those reservoirs — Lake Mead in southeast Nevada and Lake Powell in south-central Utah — drop too low, they might not be able to send enough water to downstream cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas and Los Angeles and they’ll lose the ability to generate electricity.

More conservation efforts will be needed across the entire basin to keep lakes Mead and Powell afloat.

“Everybody has to tighten their belts in this situation,” Tommy Beaudreau, deputy secretary of the Interior, said during the conference.

Currently the reservoirs combined sit at only 28% full, a historic low, Camille Calimlim Touton, Bureau of Reclamation commissioner, said. The bureau will allow less water than normal to flow out of Mead and Powell next year to try and keep levels high.

And, Tanya Trujillo, Interior’s assistant secretary for water and science, said federal officials might also order water from upstream reservoirs in Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico to be released into Lake Powell. That’s a strategy they tried last year too and experts warn that those upstream reservoirs don’t have much water to give either.

State and federal officials have known about the impending shortage for years, but the issue has taken a greater urgency as the megadrought plaguing the American West shows no signs of slowing.

Trujillo acknowledged more must be done to save water. She gave thanks for recent federal legislation that can help pay for new infrastructure and waterefficient technology, particularly for the agricultural industry, which consumes the vast majority of Colorado River water.

“Without prompt, responsive actions and investments now, the Colorado River and the citizens that rely on it will face a future of uncertainty and conflict,” Trujillo said.

Roerink, however, called the steps announced by federal officials Tuesday “utterly deficient” and “untenable.”

He shared similar remarks about a plan from water officials in upperbasin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Together, the four states handed federal officials a conservation plan, but one that didn’t include any specific or mandatory cuts to save water.

Substantive cuts in water use must first come from Arizona and California before upper-basin states follow suit, Andy Mueller, general manager of the Colorado River District, said.

“Until they do that, they should expect no additional help,” Mueller said.

It’s true that the lowerbasin states use the greatest share of water from the river, far more than they’re allotted, but Roerink said the entire basin must move to save the resource, not just two states.

“The upper basin, quite frankly, is sticking its head in the sand, digging its heels in deep,” Roerink said. “They do not want to contribute a drop to the cuts.”

If the impasse continues, Roerink said he fears the entire basin could fall into a court battle, which would waste massive amounts of money but also time. And time is a luxury the states don’t have as the Colorado River sinks deeper into drought and overuse. Conrad Swanson: 303-954-1739, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or @conrad_swanson