State and federal officials say years of binge drinking clash with harsh reality Climate changePushing the Colorado River’s reservoirs to dangerously low levels could soon prevent major dams on the river from supplying water to millions of people in the Southwest.
The federal government has issued an appeal to seven western states that depend on water from the Colorado River reduce usage 2 to 4 million acre-feet, about a third of the river’s average annual flow, to try to avoid such dire consequences. But states have failed so far reach a voluntary agreement And how to do it, the Ministry of the Interior could impose unilateral cuts in the coming months.
“Without immediate and decisive action, the elevations of Lakes Powell and Meade could force the system to cease operations,” Tommy Beaudreau, assistant secretary of the interior, said Friday at a conference of Colorado River officials. “This is an intolerable situation and we will not allow it to happen.”
Many state water officials fear that time is already running out.
Ted Cook, general manager of the Central Arizona Project, which supplies water from the Colorado River to central Arizona, said there is a “real possibility of an effective dead pond” within the next two years. That means the Glen Canyon and Hoover dams, which created reservoirs at Lake Powell and Lake Mead, could lower water levels enough to become a barrier to water supplies to cities and farms in Arizona, California, and Mexico.
“During parts of the year, we may not be able to get water to the two dams in the larger reservoirs,” Cook said. “It’s at our doorstep.”
The occasional cowboy hat is visible in the standing room crowd inside Caesars Palace, a crisis looming over the annual gathering of water officials. Organizers said it was the first time the conference had sold out and the threat of a massive shortage loomed as state water managers, tribes and the federal government come together to figure out how to reduce usage to an unprecedented pace.
“I can feel the tension and uncertainty in this room and in the basin,” said Kamil Kalimlim Dudan, commissioner of the Rescue Office.
Ultimately, the negotiations should come down to those in fast-growing urban areas versus those in agricultural communities that grow winter vegetables. In the complex world of water rights, farms often take precedence over cities because they have long-term use of river water. Unlike previous negotiations, water managers now expect the cuts to affect even the oldest water users.
The states of the Upper Colorado River Basin (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) are hard to say how much they can cut because they rely less on reservoir allocations and more on variable river flows. The lower basin states of California, Arizona, and Nevada also use the most water.
“In the upper watershed, we take 80 percent and Mother Nature gives us 30 percent,” said Gene Shawcroft, president of the Utah Colorado River Commission. “Those are some of the challenges we wrestle with.”
The federal government had set an August deadline for the states to reach a voluntary agreement on the cuts, but that deadline passed without an agreement. Some state officials here blame the Biden administration. They said the rush to reach a deal evaporated when it became clear this summer that the federal government was unwilling to impose unilateral cuts.
Now the Biden administration has launched a new environmental review to look at the distribution of the Colorado River during water scarcity conditions. Water managers hope to have more clarity on what states can provide by the end of January. In the summer, the federal government is expected to define its power to impose unilateral cuts.
“Unfortunately, it’s a year later than we needed it to be,” Cook said in an interview.
Across the West, drought has already led to record numbers dry wells in californiaLarge tracts of farmland are forced to fallow and owners must control their size water their lawns. This week, a major water provider in Southern California Regional drought emergency declared He also called on regions that depend on water from the Colorado River to reduce their imports.
There have been problems in the river for many years. For most of the last two decades severe drought For centuries in the region, Colorado River basin states took more water from the river than it produced, draining reservoirs that act as buffers during hard times. The river’s average annual flow during that period was 13.4 million acre-feet, with users drawing an average of 15 million acre-feet a year, said James Prairie, head of the Bureau’s Research and Modeling Group. of Recovery.
In 1999, the country’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, held 47.6 million acre-feet of water. That’s about 13.1 million acre-feet, or 26 percent of its capacity. One acre-foot is enough to cover one acre of land with 326,000 gallons or one foot of water.
In July, federal officials predicted that Lake Powell’s water level would drop to the point where the hydroelectric plant inside Glen Canyon Dam could no longer generate electricity, making it impossible to supply the quantities. Water that the southwestern states depend on. Water managers say a similar “death pool” is possible at Lake Mead within two years.
“These reservoirs have served us for 23 years, but now we are pushing them to the limit,” Prairie said.
Consequences of climate change: a hot dry westWhere the floor absorbs most of the runoff from mountain snow Before reaching the reservoirs, the past is not a useful guide to the future of the river. Even more snowy years now see less runoff, she said.
“The performance of that race is key to be alert and, frankly, scared,” he said.
Water managers say most of the cuts will fall in southern states, including Arizona and California, where large agricultural areas use a large part of the available supply. States, which receive water through Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam, face the greatest risk if reservoirs drop to dangerous levels, said John Entzminger, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
“If you can’t get water through the Hoover Dam, that’s a water supply for 25 million Americans,” he said.