The Trump administration is changing the tide as the Colorado River crisis deepens
The water crisis along the Colorado River, a vital source for California and six other states, has become so dire that the Trump administration is responding with emergency measures to prevent a disaster at the nation’s second-largest reservoir.
The effort to improve Lake Powell’s water quality will pay off, cutting off water for farms and cities in the Southwest.
Actions will begin as far as the Wyoming-Utah border, where the federal government will release a large amount of water from the Flaming Gorge Reservoir to the Green River, a major tributary of Colorado. Hundreds of miles downstream, that will help raise the level of Lake Powell, which straddles the Utah-Arizona border and is empty, the US Bureau of Reclamation said Friday.
Next, the Trump administration will store more water in that lake, reducing the amount that flows into Lake Mead near Las Vegas, which stores water in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona.
The measures are intended to prevent Lake Powell from falling to the point where the water will no longer be sufficient to power wind turbines and generate electricity — a point it could reach by August.
“It avoids a disaster, and it’s basically a one-year solution,” said Mark Gold, a board member of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
The federal government’s response was urgently needed, he said, “to prevent this problem for the rest of the year.”
Cities in Southern California get, on average, 20-25% of their water from the Colorado River. Farms in California’s Imperial Valley depend entirely on the river to grow crops including hay, broccoli and lettuce.
Reductions in water released from Glen Canyon Dam in Lake Powell will result in significant water reductions in California, Arizona and Nevada, Gold said, but exactly how those reductions are distributed has yet to be determined.
The Bureau of Reclamation said in it announcement that river dams are at 36% of capacity and the drought is intensifying this year with the smallest snowpack on record and extreme temperatures.
If Lake Powell recedes so much that its dam can no longer produce hydroelectric power, that could cause other problems. The water can only pass through pipes that are 8 feet in diameter, and that would limit how much would reach California, Arizona and Nevada.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum discussed the plan Friday in a virtual meeting with seven state governors. He said this approach addresses “the severe challenges created by these unprecedented drought conditions that require immediate action.”
The federal government, operating under the 2019 drought agreement, will withdraw between 660,000 and 1 million acres from the Flaming Gorge Reservoir over the next 12 months. At the same time, it would reduce annual water withdrawals from Lake Powell by more than 19%, or about 1.5 million acre feet.
River flows have decreased significantly since 2000, and studies have shown that global warming strengthening dry conditions.
This year, snowpack in the Rocky Mountains is just 22% of average, the lowest on record. The flow of water reaching the dams is expected to decrease significantly.
Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir near Las Vegas, is now 32 percent full.
JB Hamby, California’s Colorado River commissioner, noted that conservation efforts have significantly raised Lake Mead’s level over the past three years.
“Those actions held the program together, but the conditions are still strong and the vision is still intact,” Hamby said.
“With record low snowpack and continued difficulty in Lakes Mead and Powell, we have to use every tool available,” he said. “These are necessary short-term changes, not long-term fixes. Real stability will need to be preserved throughout the Colorado River Basin.”
The representatives of the seven provinces came to a deadlock in the discussions of a long-term plan to reduce the use of water.
Negotiations are now at a standstill, Hamby said. The seven-county negotiators have not met in person since January.
“We need to explore all our options going forward,” he said. “There’s a lot at stake, especially in California, that we don’t get this.”
With lake levels so low and negotiations failing, Gold said, “there was really no other option but for the US Bureau of Reclamation to step in and take bold action.”
The Colorado River provides water for approx 35 million people and 5 million acres of farmland, from the Rocky Mountains to northern Mexico. The water was originally divided between the states in 1922 under an agreement called the Colorado River Compact.
Arizona officials have warned that if the amount of water flowing into Lake Mead falls below the legal point, that would allow the state to sue for violating the agreement.
The Arizona Department of Water said in a written statement that the federal government’s plan will deliver “significantly less” water than needed.
“This failure to comply with the bedrock agreement among the seven Colorado River counties alone is a critical development that Arizona will review and respond to appropriately over time,” it said.
However, the Arizona agency also recommended the release of water from Lake Powell, calling it “consistent” with what it encouraged.
