The U.S. Reclamation Service presented a series of drafts last week that could dramatically change the way Colorado River water is used throughout the Southwest. Mojave County officials are now preparing to consider the region’s most important issues.
Lake Mead is the largest man-made reservoir in North America and can hold nearly 29 million acre feet of water at any given time. The lake’s projected water level is used by reclamation authorities to determine drought conditions across the Southwest and to apply water use restrictions if water levels drop too low. As of this month, the reservoir was only about 23% full, and significant cuts may now be imminent in the lower Colorado River.
Next week, the Mojave County Board of Supervisors will vote on whether to assign staff to analyze drafts of the river’s recent supplemental Environmental Impact Statement and will report their findings to the county board.
Earlier this month, the Bureau of Reclamation issued a supplemental 476-page environmental impact statement for the near-term Colorado River project, calling for revisions to the 2007 interim guidelines for Glen Canyon and Hoover Dam operations next year. Revisions are proposed to account for the predicted low runoff conditions in the Colorado River Basin.
Department officials said earlier this month that projections of low runoff over the next five years pose unacceptable risks to routine operations at Glen Canyon and the Hoover Dam. To address potential future water shortages, the reclamation authority said he reduced water use on the Colorado River by 2.08 million acre-feet in 2004, with alternatives to continue significant annual reductions through 2027. presented.
The Bureau of Reclamation’s proposal would give the southwestern states three options to face the crisis.
The first is to apply reductions specific to each downstream state based on the legal priority each user has for the Colorado River water. According to reports earlier this week by the Associated Press and the Tribune News Service, this is a situation that benefits California, where Southern California’s farmland has enjoyed more than 3 million priority water rights for more than a century. .
This is also a situation that could harm communities in Central Arizona that benefit from the Central Arizona Project Canal. Under the law, CAP, which diverts approximately one million acre feet of water annually to the Phoenix and Tucson areas, will be the first to face restrictions during the water shortages on the Colorado River.
The second option, Colorado River Reductions, applies these reductions based on the percentage of water used by each city, farm, tribe, or other entity in the lower Colorado River Basin.
A third option, described in the Environmental Impact Statement, is to curb water use beyond what is already approved under the reservoir’s 2007 Operational Guidelines and 2019 Downstream Drought Contingency Plan. Do not require action to do so.
Mojave County Superintendent Travis Ringenfelter, who called the Reclamation Service’s environmental impact statement “massive,” was still reading the document as of Thursday.
“I fully understand Option 1 favors California, but I think Arizona accounts for about 83% of the water outages,” said Lingenfelter. “Option 2 is more balanced and shares the pain. I think these options are bookends. What everyone wants is somewhere in the middle to have an ‘ultimate solution’ That’s it. “
But Lingenfelter says Southwesterners need to be prepared.
“One thing is clear: for the 40 million people who depend on the Colorado River, this will be the ‘new normal.’ I think humanity will be tested. We are the best.” Thankfully this was a good year with lots of rain so we were able to buy some more time.But 23 Years of drought cannot be eliminated.”
The U.S. Department of the Interior will decide on one of the three listed alternatives when it releases a final supplemental impact statement this summer.
