The Colorado River Compact was signed in 1922, just 10 years after New Mexico became a state. Most of the water in the 1,450-mile-long river comes from Colorado, and as that states top water official from 2013 to 2017, James Eklund directed the creation of a comprehensive long-term plan to address climate change, the first by a state in the West. The way the markets were set up left them open to being gamed.. The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. Those who grow alfalfa in Southern Californias Imperial and Coachella valleys would keep their water before people in parts of Los Angeles. It may feel like California is flush with water at the moment, after a winter of historic storms that replenished drought-starved lakes and left the . Although California was deluged for weeks from late in December by seven atmospheric rivers that dumped up to 30 inches (76 cm) of rain over some areas, little of that reached the Colorado River basin. And now, water officials are grappling with how to make do with less. It's now more salty than the ocean, heavily contaminated with agricultural runoff, and shrinking. New Mexico still uses only about half of its allotment under the compact each year. Interior officials did not issue any mandatory water cuts for New Mexico. Udall's projections for the Colorado River aren't a certainty, but if climate, drought and water conditions continue as expected over the next five years, the amount of water delivered from . James Eklund, legal counsel for Water Asset Management, favors a market-driven approach to water distribution in the West. Greenstone then moved to sell the water to one of the right places: Queen Creek, a fast-growing suburb of Phoenix 175 miles away, full of tract houses and backyard pools. The Colorado River Compact was signed in 1922 just 10 years after New Mexico became a state. Steve Benson returned to the family business, Benson Farms in Brawley, Calif., after a career in engineering and real estate. Biden should not let Venezuelas regime run out the clock on democracy, Floridas surgeon general played loose with facts about vaccine risk, in negotiations with the seven states affected. Lake Mead was at 100% capacity in mid-1999. At which point, if private entities like WAM had stores of water in Lake Powell ready to sell, they would suddenly be worth quite a bit more. What are the top crops grown in Colorado? Theyre making water a commodity, said Regina Cobb, the Arizona assemblywoman who represents Cibola. On a map, this is the very top of the Gulf of California. Those Upper Basin reservoir releases will likely continue next year, Interior officials said. All rights reserved. It lies below sea level, allowing water from the Colorado River to flow there by gravity alone. If we can get water users within places like the San Juan Basin to agree to shortage sharing agreements, then theres no need for strict priority administration, he said. According to the site below, 1.. The snowpack in the Rocky Mountains, the main source of runoff that feeds the Colorado River system, is also higher than normal but not by as much as in California. The ongoing drought is a stark reminder that water conservation is not just smart planning but an absolute necessity to save the life of the Colorado River, Amelia Flores, chairwoman of Colorado River Indian Tribes, said ahead of the event. Roughly 180,000 people, most of them Mexican-American, live here in towns that include El Centro, Calexico, and Brawley. When I reached Holly Irwin, a county supervisor who lives in Cibola, by phone a couple of weeks after my visit, she was angry. In April, water administrators in Southern California imposed a one-day-a-week outdoor watering limit on more than 6 million people. The system of tunnels and dams at the New Mexico state line diverts water into the Rio Grande Basin. Feds cut Colorado River water allocations. What does it mean for Nevada If someone was there to short water, they wouldnt be there anymore, he said. Its a more acceptable solution, generally.. What has happened in Australia should be a cautionary tale for America, Mr. Kells said. But officials in these farming districts with long-standing water rights do not intend to give them up without a fight or without compensation that meets their needs. The proposal by the six states Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming aims to protect the major reservoirs in Lake Powell and Lake Mead from falling below critical levels, such as when the dams would no longer be able to generate electricity or at dead pool, when water would effectively be blocked from flowing out of these lakes. The proposal would result in about 2 million acre-feet of cuts the low end of what the federal government has asked for and would be largest for the biggest consumers of water: California and Arizona. Near its headwaters, in the farming community of Nathrop, Colo., I met up with Greg Felt, a county commissioner. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs. It is just in the wrong places. Kightlinger, along with many other water experts and officials, says cuts of this magnitude and severity have to be shared, rather than doled out according to seniority. Another dry year has left the watershed that supplies 40 million people in the Southwest parched. In the last few years, Colorado has been debating a water policy approach that has further piqued the interest of private investors: paying farmers not to use the river at all. Lake Mead to rise one foot by Sunday after federal 'high flow' water Some fear that less water, and less farming, means fewer jobs and economic decline. Youve got two drivers exacerbating the problem. Who are the top 5 consumers of the water of the Colorado River? The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in June told the seven states that are part of the Colorado River Basin Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming to determine how to use at least 15% less water next year, or have restrictions imposed on them. Federal Water Shortage Limits Loom Over Colorado River And All - NPR Last year, Australias devastating wildfires and drought spiked water prices. Touton and two top Interior Department officials are scheduled to address the conference on Friday. As reservoir levels drop, the document suggests California, which has rights to 4.4 million acre-feet of water, would need to cut more than 1 million acre-feet. Andy Mueller, general manager of the Colorado River District, is skeptical. The way this priority system works, residents of Phoenix would lose water before vegetable farmers in Yuma. As WAMs Mr. Diserio likes to say, When you need water, water is the only thing that will do.. State Engineer Mike Hamman, New Mexicos top water manager, said the state really feels the shortages because it doesnt have the big reservoirs of other states in the Colorado River Basin. His great-grandfather came to the valley from Sweden in the 1920s. The Colorado River provides water for one out of every eight Americans for residential, indus-trial, mining, agricultural, and recreational needs. The entire series, including Afterhours at the Radio Bookclub, is available as a podcast. (Anthony Jackson/The Albuquerque Journal via AP), Trump PAC Complaint Against DeSantis Rejected in Florida, North Carolina AG Urges Public Safety, Law Enforcement Bills, 7 Bodies Found During Search for Missing Oklahoma Teens. In the West, few issues carry the political charge of water. "The droughts that we are seeing are becoming that much more severe because of the temperature component, they're warmer," Bolinger said. Is that something that can change? The price of the longer outing includes lunch. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton this year tasked Colorado River states with creating an ambitious conservation plan. Construction of the original canal was marked by epic engineering failure. Who are the top 5 water consumers? California, despite using more water than any state, is the remaining holdout. Top 5 US Consumers California is the largest consumer of water in the US. "Something will have to give," said Sharon Megdal, director of the University of Arizona's Water Resources Research Center. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. What top five states have rivers? Though it stopped short of calling for a shutdown, an interim report last summer recommended comprehensive changes in water markets, citing inadequate regulation and market exploitation by professional traders. But the entire region must work together, Lpez said, to avoid more mandatory cuts. Known as a compact call, such an event could trigger draconian, never-before-seen restrictions on water use in cities like Denver, while obligating them to search for alternative, higher-priced sources of water. An engineering marvel from the heyday of federal water construction, the project is a vast network or reservoirs filled by a tunnel that pipes water from the Colorado River 13 miles under the Continental Divide. . They inherited the legal right to use that water, but they're now under pressure to give up some of it. If nothing changes, within a few years, Lake Mead would drop to a level called "dead pool" and water would stop flowing through Hoover Dam. Dec. 13, 2022, at 6:19 a.m. Colorado River Water Users Convening Amid Crisis Concerns. Florida Power & Light, a part of NextEra Energy. The Best Whitewater Rafting in Colorado - US News & World Report When started, they were hailed as a fast, flexible way of redistributing water on the driest inhabited continent, with little regulation attached. "And there's not enough time to litigate these issues," added Hayes, a former top climate aide to President Joe Biden. The ultimate goal of this high-flow experiment is to move sand and sediment along the Colorado River. The emergence of open markets could outpace the negotiations. hide caption. But on top of that, theres a problem with the rules, Cohen said. Theyre going to make big bucks off the water, and whos going to suffer? she said. The reality is we have an overallocated river, said Jeffrey Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the largest water supplier in the country. 24, 2023 at 11:45 PM PDT. Five things you can do for the Colorado River: 1. These fields owe their existence to fortune-seeking land speculators and engineers who, starting in 1901, dug a canal to bring water to this valley from the Colorado River. KGNUs Alexis Kenyon spoke with Dr. Jack Schmidt the director of the Center of Colorado River Studies at Utah State University about what a shrinking Colorado River means for everyone and everything it sustains. This scene is unlikely to last, though. PHOENIX (CN) On the heels of one of the wettest Arizona winters in history, federal, state, local and tribal leaders united Thursday to announce a total of $233 million in funding for water conservation agreements to aid the Gila River Indian Community and other Colorado River users. Ultimately, we argued against it, he said. The Upper Basin plan hinges on existing conservation programs. Why is the river drying up? Farmers could buy new, more water-efficient irrigation equipment. That would be a disaster. In the last 10 years, the price of water there has gone up more than eightfold. The amount of water being used far exceeds whats actually available. It's the thirstiest crop in the US south-west. Will the drought put Without the river and its load of nutrients, marine productivity in the Gulf of California where the Colorado River once ended has fallen by up to 95 percent. Mr. In the winter, 90% of vegetables consumed in both the US and Canada are grown with Colorado River water. Scientists attribute extended drought to warmer and drier weather in the West to long-term, human-caused climate change. But those plans, say members of Colorado's outdoor recreation, real estate, and tourism industries, jeopardize a $9 billion dollar economy that hinges on healthy rivers - and supports more . Sprinklers deliver vital Colorado River water to a field of celery in California's Imperial Valley. In 2003, under pressure from the federal government, IID agreed to transfer about 10 percent of its total allotment of water each year to San Diego and another neighboring water district. Who are the top five consumers of Colorado river? - Answers Associated Press journalists Brittany Peterson in Denver, Sam Metz in Salt Lake City and Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona, contributed to this report. CNN Deep uncertainty looms over the Colorado River and the 40 million people who depend on it for their water supply as the basin enters a critical year that could determine its future. The best states in the U.S. come from coast to coast. Having a seat at the table means working with every tribe to learn their specific water rights and needs.. Key Colorado River reservoirs unlikely to refill in our lifetimes - Los The four states at the headwaters of the river Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming also recently announced they plan to ask Congress to let them use federal money through 2026 for a program dubbed strategic conservation. It would resurrect a 2015 to 2018 pilot program that paid farmers to fallow land to cut water use. The other half is mile after mile of green fields lined by irrigation canals. Under existing Colorado River agreements, that condition means starting next year, Nevada will have its water allotment cut by 25,000 acre-feet (8 percent). Know where your water comes from. From April through September, tours commence at 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., with . IID laid claim to water from the Colorado River before cities like Phoenix and Tucson showed up. My fear is that the speculators are going to break it. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. He saw a need for drastic conservation efforts to protect reservoirs from overuse and drought worsened by climate change, a situation that if left unchecked could threaten supply from the Hoover Dam to the city of Las Vegas or California. Because the Colorado River is so large, envisioning the local impacts of water transfers can be a challenge for decision makers, especially when the communities are as remote as Cibola. Gary Libecap, a professor of economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who specializes in water issues, believes that movement of water necessarily generates a public good, whatever form it takes. In the last 20 years, tensions over increasingly scarce Colorado River water supplies have been rising in step with climate change and global temperatures. They would have bought it, turned it, flipped it, and theyd be gone.. Access to it can make or break both cities and rural communities. We stand behind the priority system on the river, and we also understand that theres painful cuts that people need to make. "We have a situation where some of the water rights holders in California are saying, 'We're not willing to give up more water, and we think we have legal rights and we're willing to go to court if we have to'," said David Hayes, a lecturer at Stanford University Law School. About 70% is allocated for irrigation, sustaining a $15 billion-a-year agricultural industry that supplies 90% of U.S. winter vegetables. "I think we would rather come up with voluntary agreements to live with a little bit less, to ensure that we have water," he says. "The river has a gun to everybody's heads, and it's in everybody's interest to try to work out this thing," says JB Hamby, a member of the irrigation district's board of directors. But once you know how to recognize them, they can seem to be everywhere. Lake Mead, seen here on April 3, has plummeted in recent years amid an epic drought. Keep independent community-powered radio strong in our community. The proposal begins with a 400,000 acre-foot cut, as previously offered, and continues with additional reductions as the reservoir declines toward levels where power generation would be threatened. The interested players range from financial firms to university endowments to investor groups, including at least two in Colorado led by former governors. Nor is it official policy yet. Increasing Pressures on Colorado River Water in New Mexico, Researchers at the New Mexico State University Agricultural Science Center in Farmington, N.M., works with alfalfa on July 22, 2020. Lake Powell, last full in June 1980, is at 25%. In the winter, 90% of vegetables consumed in both the US and Canada are grown with Colorado River water. His water district uses about 2.6 million acre-feet of water per year to irrigate more than 400,000 acres of farmland for alfalfa, grasses and other crops. And all the positives that water has provided for 100 years in the state of Colorado are gone., Of course, not everyone has been displeased by the arrival of hedge funds reportedly paying millions in cash for old farms. Dan Charles for NPR KGNU is made possible by listeners like you! In Era of Drought, Phoenix Prepares for a Future Without Colorado River "They have the most water, and in some senses the most power," she says. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers. Researchers at the New Mexico State University Agricultural Science Center in Farmington, N.M., works with . "What happened today was a step forward," said Kevin Moran, a water policy specialist at the Environmental Defense Fund. The April selection for the Radio Bookclub is Go As A River by Colorado author Shelley Read. Agencies are making progress on large projects to deliver water to Navajo communities in western New Mexico. Beef cattle are the top agricultural product of Imperial County. A Farmer, A Chef, An Advocate And A Pie Guy Discuss Local Food Systems. The Colorado River Water Users Association conference, normally a largely academic three-day affair, comes at a time of growing concern about the river's future after more than two decades of record drought attributed to climate change. It took two years to redirect the river back into its original channel. In 2001, Pueblo West, a planned community 100 miles away, came calling. SEATTLE, Wash., Feb 1 (Reuters) - The Colorado River, which provides drinking water to 40 million people in seven U.S. states, is drying up, straining a water distribution pact amid the worst drought in 12 centuries, exacerbated by climate change. Florida Keys Electric Cooperative. Surge of Colorado River water reaches Lake Mead - ktla.com (Photos: U.S. Geological Survey/Willie Taylor) Lake Mead is now projected to rise 33 feet higher than expected this year . Tags: Associated Press, New Mexico, Wyoming, natural disasters, Colorado, Nevada, California, allergies, Arizona, Utah. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) Colorado River tributaries in New Mexico bring water to the alfalfa fields in the Four Corners and the forested hills of the Gila wilderness in the southwestern part of the state. U.S. states struggle to share dwindling waters of Colorado River The same issues could resurface next year if officials look to the New Mexico reservoir as an emergency supply for downstream users. Valued at $2 billion after 14 years in existence, Australias markets primarily facilitate trades in agricultural areas.