The Colorado River’s Water Supply and Demand, and Why the Interior of the Colorado River is Sorely Undermining the Interior’s Environmental Impact Statement

Plagued by decades of overuse and human-caused climate change, demand for the river’s water has vastly outpaced its supply. The federal and state governments must find a way to keep as much of the water as possible in the Colorado River states.

The Hoover Dam operations may need to be restricted in order to protect the system integrity and public health and safety.

The Bureau of Reclamation said that the hydropower is distributed to eight states, and that the levels of each dam’s storehouse are decreasing so much that it is feared that the power could stop coming in the future.

The Colorado River’s lack of water has prompted officials to encourage massive, voluntary water cuts.

The federal government is also responsible for the facilities of the basin, said Touton. The right way to go is working with the states and the tribes to be able to get to a path forward, as has been proven in the last 100 years. We are also aware that the challenges we are seeing across the west are not what we have seen before in this organization.

Touton, at a recent virtual event, said that she wanted to strike a deal with the states, but that the Bureau was prepared to act on its own.

The director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University said that it was an indication of hope that there would be a consensus agreement. It indicates the bureau hasn’t forsworn any actions of its own.

The issue at the heart of why it has been so difficult for California and Arizona to agree on water cuts comes down to priority: Who is legally first in line for water when cuts occur.

A plan under which the federal government would tell states how much water they must cut in order to save the river system.

Porter said that it would be useful for the Interior to include a no action alternative in the environmental impact statement in order to show how devastating an absence of action would be.

Water Cuts in the Lower Basin, Arizona River, and Colorado River: State Negotiations and Federal Court Deliberations about State Water Laws

The bureau said that a final decision would be made in the summer of next year. The decision would go into effect for the next water year, which begins in the fall of 2023.

If they don’t do it by the next two years the lakes could reach a dead pool where the water is too low to flow through the dams and the communities are in dire need of it.

In May, western state officials agreed to leave one million acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. They watched as the same amount of water disappeared due to system losses and evaporation.

“We need all water users to be able to look at the real situation on the river now,” said Brenda Burman, general manager of the Central Arizona Project and a former Bureau of Reclamation commissioner in the Trump administration. “When you look at how this river has shrunk, when you look at how much less water there is in the river than any of us ever thought – you have to say everyone who receives a benefit from this infrastructure needs to be willing to put some water on the table.”

In the west, anxiety is growing because of the drop in levels. California, Arizona and Nevada are all located in the Lower Basin so they have been closely observed regarding the negotiations over water cuts.

There is disagreements over how much water each state should sacrifice, how much money should be paid to farmers to conserve, and so on.

State negotiators are waiting on the federal government to decide how to distribute $4 billion in drought relief money, which was fronted by the Biden administration and is known as the Inflation Reduction Act.

But, he says, “it makes it a little more difficult because of the uncertainty and not knowing” what the difference will be between the money the federal government is offering, and the voluntary cuts districts are willing to make.

There is also a distinct possibility that the federal government will step in if voluntary cuts don’t come close to what’s needed. But that plan would almost assuredly be greeted with a court challenge.

Sarah Porter, the director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University, told CNN that federal officials are working carefully to prepare for the possibility that they would be sued over mandatory cuts, “so they can demonstrate it’s not an arbitrary action.”

At a December conference for Colorado River water users, the assistant secretary of the Department of Interior talked about that likelihood.

The Colorado River Basin is not dry today, but the lack of precipitation and jet stream shifted northward by the La Nia jet stream

While West Coast states have seen a boon in precipitation in recent weeks – California snowpack is running around 150% of average so far this winter – the weather over the Colorado River Basin in the Intermountain West has been less wet. Snowpack in parts of the upper basin in Utah and Colorado is slightly above average, but lower basin mountains have seen below-average snow.

Simpson, a climate scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said that human-caused climate change is “almost certainly” going to make dry years worse.

Since the 1980’s, the Southwest region has seen a steady decline in precipitation. Simpson, who co-leads a federal task force on drought, said decades-long lack of rain and a rise in planet-heating emissions have worsened the conditions.

Dry air makes water evaporate from the ground during hot weather. This is a reason why the Colorado River is being badly affected by water shortages because the air pollution is sucking up water from what is left of them.

There is a high chance that the lack of rain and low snowpack wont go away soon, she said. The jet stream, the upper level winds that carry storms around the globe, is usually shifted northward by La Nia. That will mean less rain for the region.

Colorado River Water in Arizona: State Senator Wade Hayes is frustrated with the current state of California, but the Supreme Court is ready to intervene

The maximum amount of basin-wide cuts the six states are proposing in their model is 3.1 million acre feet per year. It accounts for water conservation and evaporation and, if approved, could kick in if reservoir levels fall to catastrophically low conditions.

The rift in the relationship of California and Arizona is due to years of use and climate change, which has resulted in a river system in crisis.

“The lack of a consensus and six states moving forward with an approach that does not harmonize with the law is troubling,” Hamby said. The risk is higher when you have six states approaching things like this, because it puts everyone’s best interest in mind.

“I think California is playing with fire here,” said David Hayes, a former top climate aide to President Joe Biden, now at Stanford University Law School. “This issue is bigger than any group of water rights holders. The implications of not addressing this issue could affect the economy of the entire state of California.”

As state consensus proves difficult to reach and there is pressure on the federal government to act, many believe that litigation will be brought this year that could end up at the Supreme Court.

Wade Noble, a lawyer for farmers and irrigation districts in Arizona, is unsure if the Supreme Court will take the case. “I suspect everybody who has been lawyering up wants to make sure their legal team has Supreme Court experience. The types of issues that are addressed are the ones that get there.

Imperial Irrigation District’s senior rights entitle it to use just over 3 million acre-feet of Colorado River water every year, the same amount of water as Arizona and Nevada’s entire allocations combined.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/30/us/colorado-river-water-california-arizona-climate/index.html

The State’s First Attorney’s Report on Water Rights in the Valley of the Colorado River: Reply to Hamby, Enstminger and Buschatzke

Hamby said that the recent negotiations would not give up a century of history and position. Doing away with the priority approach is not acceptable.

“Decisions to cut back water deliveries below the Hoover Dam cannot wait for a complex water rights case to be litigated up through the Supreme Court. That can take years,” Hayes said. “Plus, no legal decision will solve the fundamental problem of insufficient water. That reality needs to be faced.”

In order for farmers to have a chance to get water from the Colorado River, California wanted to follow the law of the river which gives priority to certain farmers in major agricultural districts.

The proposal was immediately rejected by the other state officials at the negotiating table, according to people familiar with the discussions.

John Enstminger, the general manager for the Southern Nevada Water Authority who was not present at this particular session, told CNN the proposal was a major concern for public health and safety in Western cities.

“If you want to model cutting off most or all of the water supply of 27 million Americans, you can go through the exercise but implementing that on the ground would have the direst consequence for almost 10% of the country,” Entsminger said.

Arizona’s top water official, Tom Buschatzke, wouldn’t comment on the closed-door discussion. He told CNN that Arizona officials wouldn’t be cutting off their biggest cities from Colorado River water.

The Central Arizona Project would go to zero if Buschatzke were to ask the federal government to model it. “I will not do that. The consequences of CAP going to zero are pretty severe. Severe for tribes, severe for cities, severe for industries.”

Negotiations for the Upper Colorado River Commission and the Bureau of Reclamation to Stabilize the Water Levels at Lake Powell in Lake Powell

Multiple states told CNN that they are still trying to get an agreement and acknowledge that talks have been difficult.

The Upper Colorado River Commission is committed to working together as seven basin states.

Buschatzke, Arizona’s top water official, called the six-state proposal a “very positive outcome” and said he and others would try to keep conversations going with California.

Negotiations will continue over the next few months, Buschatzke said, adding that he was committed to working with all seven states.

He said that they hadn’t shared any cumulative ballpark with them. It will be less of a gap to close if we know the ballpark at least and the specific number.

Emergency measures taken by the Bureau of Reclamation have helped to stable the water levels downstream at Lake Powell.

Lake Powell in late February sank to its lowest water level since the reservoir was filled in the 1960s, and since 2000 has dropped more than 150 feet.

The Colorado Basin River Forecast Center: Is It Getting Better? Arizona’s Top Water Official and the First Round of Short-Term Water Cuts in the Southwest

“We’re way ahead of where we need to be from a water supply standpoint”, said Paul Miller, a hydrologist at the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center. We are very positive that we are in a good spot. This year is a good time to try and save water because we have a lot of space in our reservoirs and so we can do some more water efficient things.

Tom Buschatzke, Arizona’s top water official is hoping the rain will be good. Even with the nation’s largest Reservoir so low that one year isn’t going to make a difference, Buschatzke cautioned that hydrology can come and go in the spring.

“Even really good hydrology – if it tracks the way it’s been tracking – it’s going to buy us 6 months or a year at most,” he said. It is not going to change anything in the system.

After months of negotiations with farmers, tribes and cities, federal officials will soon announce the results of its first round of voluntary short-term water cuts in the Southwest, paid for with part of the $4 billion in drought relief funds that were passed in the Inflation Reduction Act.

The officials at the Department of Interior and reclamation recently told a group of Western senators that they expect to save up to ten feet of elevation in Lake Mohave. The Democratic senator from Arizona said that $250 million of the total $4 billion will be spent on water savings.

Farmers will fallow fields for a long time in order to save water. The Interior Department says that the amount of money a farmer will get depends on how long they stay in the field.

The additional $4 billion in the fund will be used to help farmers install irrigation systems that use less water, according to Kelly.

Kelly said, “That adds up to real significant amounts of water when you look at how much you get for different kinds of programs.” There is one thing clear. It’s a game change to put that $4 billion into the Inflation Reduction Act.