See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. The water tower in El Centro, the county seat of Imperial County, notes a geographic fact that shapes this area's destiny. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton this year tasked Colorado River states with creating an ambitious conservation plan. Steve Benson returned to the family business, Benson Farms in Brawley, Calif., after a career in engineering and real estate. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. The dry period has lasted more than two decades, draining the major reservoirs along the river. 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. In exchange, San Diego pays the irrigation district more than $100 million each year. Much of the money goes to pay for projects that conserve water. Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the worlds largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Nor is it official policy yet. Lake Mead to rise one foot by Sunday after federal high flow water release, Las Vegas police: Man shot in street in west valley, 1 dead, 2 hurt in southwest Las Vegas Valley crash, Heavy, black smoke, flames seen near Cheyenne, Lamb, 2 suspects face arson charges after setting fires at Las Vegas Strip hotels, Clark County in dire need of foster parents for teens; Heres how to help, I lost everything: Recovering addict shares story of hope, helping others in Las Vegas, City turns on water at splash pads at parks across Las Vegas. Here water is very scarce, and in periods of shortage traders essentially cheer on the drought, Mr. Kells said. Tickets start at around $89 for the former and $149 for the latter. In a general, larger picture, its a national park, and the way the river was before the dam came in has changed a lot, Tusso said. "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 if you know one tribe, you only know one tribe. Lurking in those details, though, is a bigger and more worrisome question. As a result, the talks starting in January will be a vehicle for urgent attempts to manage the water, including replenishing downstream reservoirs. It sold those to owners unaware of their obligation to revegetate the land, now without access to water. Understanding California's relationship with Colorado River 'The brink of disaster': 2023 is a critical year for the Colorado River Many call conservation crucial. Investors and the environment may benefit, but water will almost certainly be more expensive. Just kind of a nightmare, Mr. Water has to travel surprisingly far to reach your faucet. 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. 30 water suppliers pledge to address Colorado River shortage - Los Selling the rights to a Rocky Mountain trout stream or a hayfield dating from the pioneer era to nonlocal interests, especially those seeking to turn a profit, has the potential to be seen as auctioning state patrimony. When started, they were hailed as a fast, flexible way of redistributing water on the driest inhabited continent, with little regulation attached. Transferring water from agricultural communities to cities, though often contentious, is not a new practice. In April, water administrators in Southern California imposed a one-day-a-week outdoor watering limit on more than 6 million people. A field of alfalfa, freshly cut, dries in the sun. Agencies are making progress on large projects to deliver water to Navajo communities in western New Mexico. By design, the five-year process is ponderous and built to be consensus-driven, with an eye toward shared sacrifice. 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 . The negotiations have the potential to redefine rules that for the last century have governed one of the most valuable economic resources in the United States. Interior officials did not issue any mandatory water cuts for New Mexico. Ultimately, we argued against it, he said. Due to critically low current reservoir conditions, and the potential for worsening drought which threatens critical infrastructure and public health and safety operational strategies must be revisited, Bunk said. The same issues could resurface next year if officials look to the New Mexico reservoir as an emergency supply for downstream users. Among conference topic titles are Messaging in a More Water-Challenged world and The Next 100 Years Begins Now.. A more arid climate means all water users need to work harder to live within our means, said Estevan Lpez, New Mexicos representative on the Upper Colorado River Commission. Theyre going to make big bucks off the water, and whos going to suffer? she said. So it's been a high market. Half is in its natural state, a bone-dry desert. He remains unidentified. The bureau forecasts that for the first time, Lake Mead will operate in a Tier 2 shortage condition starting in 2023. Escambia River Electric Cooperative. Colorado River tributaries serve relatively small portions of northwest and southwest New Mexico. Another dry year has left the watershed that supplies 40 million people in the Southwest parched. The State of Colorado could actually buy the water from them, Mr. Libecap said. The entire series, including Afterhours at the Radio Bookclub, is available as a podcast. More about the Colorado River - Colorado Public Radio Hay, corn, wheat, sorghum, and millet are the top five. It's about the future of the whole valley. But Colorado River and reservoir management was designed during a much wetter period. Increasing Pressures on Colorado River Water in New Mexico - US News In the Colorado River Basin as a whole, which services about 40 million people in seven states and is overtaxed to the point that it rarely ever reaches the ocean anymore, that number is 55%. Updated: Apr 26, 2023 / 01:55 PM PDT. 24, 2023 at 11:45 PM PDT. Once criticized for being a profligate user of water, fast-growing Phoenix has taken some major steps including banking water in underground reservoirs, slashing per-capita use, and recycling wastewater in anticipation of the day when the flow from the Colorado River ends. A combination of chronic water overuse and historic drought conditions are creating chaos. FILE - A buoy sits high and dry on cracked earth previously under the waters of Lake Mead at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area near Boulder City, Nev., on June 28, 2022. Updated: Apr 26, 2023 / 01:55 PM PDT. Some fear that less water, and less farming, means fewer jobs and economic decline. Seven arid states comprise the Colorado River BasinColorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and Californiaand all exceed the national average for farm water use, with the exception of Wyoming, which uses 1.5 acre-feet of water per acre, in line with the national average. They're trying to jump on the market early and have the first lettuce to be harvested.". Many see the compact as a safeguard isolating the river from the market. Home to about 300 people, depending on what time of year youre counting, the town sits on the California border, in a stretch of the Sonoran Desert encircled by fanglike mountains and seemingly dead rocky terrain. Ron DeSantis, finding no legal basis for allegations that the governor violated campaign finance laws with a shadow run for the White House, North Carolina's attorney general is urging lawmakers to adopt several crime prevention proposals to tackle gun violence, the opioid crisis and the state's backlog of sexual assault cases, The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation says the bodies of seven people have been discovered during the search for two missing teenagers. California split from the six states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming on Tuesday in the face of a U.S. government deadline to negotiate their own supply cuts or face possible mandatory cutbacks by the federal government. 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. If someone was there to short water, they wouldnt be there anymore, he said. Its not necessarily a new concept in parts of Southern California, farmers have been paid for more than a decade to fallow land. The proponents of water markets say they are not in it just for the money. In the last 10 years, the price of water there has gone up more than eightfold. Flows during the past 23-year period are the lowest in the past 120 years and (among) the lowest in more than 1,200 years, Bunk told the webinar audience. However, the same water could also flow where water often flows: toward the highest bidder. Amid Dire Colorado River Outlook, States Plan to Tap Their Lake Mead That a lush hay farm had once been here seemed hard to believe. Thats the dilemma looking at how we can reduce demand with as soft a blow as possible, Hamman said. In the winter, 90% of vegetables consumed in both the US and Canada are grown with Colorado River water. "The water of every natural stream, not heretofore appropriated, within the state of Colorado, is hereby declared to be the property of the public, and the same is dedicated to the use of the people of the state, subject to appropriation as hereinafter provided." Article 16. But we will not serve as an emergency reservoir for uncontrollable, unsustainable urban sprawl, Cardenas said. Cities use roughly 20% of the Colorado River's water, while agriculture uses approximately 80%. Researchers at the New Mexico State University Agricultural Science Center in Farmington, N.M., works with alfalfa on July 22, 2020. The Imperial Irrigation District draws enough water from the river each year to cover 470,000 acres with 5 feet of water. From April through September, tours commence at 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., with . Dan Charles for NPR There is plenty. Before above-average snows in recent weeks, the Bureau of Reclamation was projecting that Lake Powell could start to reach such thresholds by this summer. Feb. 11, 2023 Updated: Feb. 11, 2023 10:50 a.m. Sandbars are important, according to the feds: they are places for people to camp, fish, and also protect important archaeological sites throughout the Grand Canyon and across the Colorado River. The tribal reservation in western Arizona includes more than 110 miles (177 kilometers) of Colorado River shoreline. Key Colorado River reservoirs unlikely to refill in our lifetimes - Los He also pointed out that unlike the private investors who quietly, quickly and pseudonymously bought up valuable property in the Wests notorious land grabs like the acquisition of the Owens River rights by the City of Los Angeles WAM has purchased water rights in its own name. The current canal, built during the New Deal and called the All-American Canal, delivers enough water to the Imperial Irrigation District (IID) each year to cover all of its irrigated land almost 800 square miles with 5 feet of water. Dec. 13, 2022, at 6:19 a.m. Colorado River Water Users Convening Amid Crisis Concerns. Scientists attribute extended drought to warmer and drier weather in the West to long-term, human-caused climate change. Today, they are at 26%. About 70% is allocated for irrigation, sustaining a $15 billion-a-year agricultural industry that supplies 90% of U.S. winter vegetables. One of the central tensions of these complicated negotiations is how to balance cuts between farming regions against those in cities, including major population centers.