The Colorado River Compact was signed in 1922, just 10 years after New Mexico became a state. What has happened in Australia should be a cautionary tale for America, Mr. Kells said. In April, water administrators in Southern California imposed a one-day-a-week outdoor watering limit on more than 6 million people. Chaffee County is considered one of the hidden gems of the Rockies, a relatively unspoiled valley with a diverse economy in tourism as well as agriculture. KGNUs Alexis Kenyon spoke with Dr. Jack Schmidt the director of the Center of . Cibola, Ariz., is one of the wrong places. 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. But over the last two decades, the actual flow has dwindled to 12.5 million acre-feet on average, leaving state water managers with more rights on paper than existing supply. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton this year tasked Colorado River states with creating an ambitious conservation plan. Theyd have to have a storage account of their own in a federal reservoir, and from my perspective thats a nonstarter, Mr. Mueller said. 2002, 2018 and 2021 are the most intense dry periods on record for the basin. The compact contains a fail-safe mechanism if the river runs too low. He remains unidentified. Dan Charles for NPR 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. The term consultation gets thrown around in the basin a whole lot, Vigil said. 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. In the winter, 90% of vegetables consumed in both the US and Canada are grown with Colorado River water. Interior officials did not issue any mandatory water cuts for New Mexico. The same issues could resurface next year if officials look to the New Mexico reservoir as an emergency supply for downstream users. The effect has been dramatic on a vast river basin where the math never added up: The amount of water it receives doesn't meet the amount that is promised. It wasnt until 1944 that a separate agreement promised a share of water to Mexico. Living with less water in the U.S. Southwest is the focus for a conference starting Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022, in Las Vegas, about the drought-stricken and overpromised Colorado River. 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 last time the feds utilized the high-flow experiment was back in 2018. Water Law in Colorado The whole history of the American West is about moving water, Mr. Gammage of Greenstone said. That a lush hay farm had once been here seemed hard to believe. Its the rural counties going up against big money., Grady Gammage Jr., a spokesman for Greenstone, said, In my view there is enough water both to sustain a significant agricultural economy on the river and to support urban growth in central Arizona.. We recognize that over the past twenty-plus years there is simply far less water flowing into the Colorado River system than the amount that leaves it, and that we have effectively run out of storage to deplete, the states wrote. 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. Where water investors have historically gotten involved in markets is through agriculture, with mixed results. "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. 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. 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. Duke Energy Florida, a part of Duke Energy. A field of alfalfa, freshly cut, dries in the sun. Im optimistic that were going to sort through some of these more sticky problems with a good collaborative solution, Hamman said. Mr. Eklund secured an account in Lake Powell. Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the worlds largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. 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. Water markets have been called a paradise for arbitrage, an approach in which professionals use trading speed and access to information for profit. It wasnt just the drought: Californias crops had shifted from low-value seasonal vegetables like lettuce and bell peppers to permanent non-staples, like almonds, that were so valuable that it was no longer economical for farmers to sell water to cities, even as prices spiked. That lettuce will be in grocery stores by mid-November. In 2006, Pueblo West agreed to irrigate and revive the land. The Imperial Irrigation District draws enough water from the river each year to cover 470,000 acres with 5 feet of water. However, the same water could also flow where water often flows: toward the highest bidder. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. T. Boone Pickens, the Texas oilman who died in 2019, was an early evangelist of water buys. The price had risen tenfold in a matter of months. The high-tech market there services Denver and other cities, fueling development in some of the fastest-growing housing markets in the country. Farmers could buy new, more water-efficient irrigation equipment. In Colorado, when we look up at the rocky mountains, its difficult to imagine how much those snowy white peaks mean to the rest of the world. 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. 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 . Escambia River Electric Cooperative. "It's very early planting," he says. Ultimately, we argued against it, he said. Otherwise, the state has to invest in the whole thing and pay the opportunity cost of just having that water sitting there.. Farmers also could reduce the amount of land planted in crops, especially alfalfa and grasses, which get baled into hay to feed cattle or horses. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. All rights reserved. Dan Charles for NPR Clewiston Utilities. "And there's not enough time to litigate these issues," added Hayes, a former top climate aide to President Joe Biden. Meanwhile, bodies have surfaced as Lake Mead's shoreline recedes, including the corpse of a man who authorities say was shot, maybe in the 1970s, and stuffed in a barrel. Mr. Kightlinger, of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, traces the recent private-investor interest in water to the 2015 crisis. In September, Nasdaq and CME Group, the worlds largest derivatives marketplace, announced plans to open a futures market for California water, joining it with commodities like Brent crude oil and soybeans. But the entire region must work together, Lpez said, to avoid more mandatory cuts. From April through September, tours commence at 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., with . Colorado is next (3.8 million acre-feet), followed by Arizona (2.8 million acre-feet), Utah (1.7 million acre-feet), Wyoming (1.04 million acre-feet), New Mexico (0.84 million acre-feet) and Nevada (0.30 million acre-feet). Demand for Colorado River water picked up in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Almonds and Walnuts According to a UNESCO Institute for Water Education study, shelled almonds and walnuts were among the top three most water-intensive foods. His great-grandfather came to the valley from Sweden in the 1920s. 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. What is the Colorado River? Hernandez says that the crisis on the Colorado River provides a time for the predominantly white people who've claimed that water and the wealth and power that came with it to share more of it. In the West, few issues carry the political charge of water. Throughout the river basin, warnings have increased and measures have tightened markedly in 2022. Reclamation water managers responded with plans to hold back more water in Lake Powell but warned that Lake Mead water levels would drop. Exclusive news, data and analytics for financial market professionals, Reporting by Liliana Salgado and Temis Tormo; Writing by Clarence Fernandez; Arizona city cuts off a neighborhoods water supply amid drought. If power production ceases at Glen Canyon Dam, rural electric cooperatives, cities and tribal utilities would be forced to seek more expensive options. Florida Keys Electric Cooperative. When started, they were hailed as a fast, flexible way of redistributing water on the driest inhabited continent, with little regulation attached. Going by established law, Leimgruber says, those latecomers would be cut off from Colorado River water completely before the Imperial Irrigation District gives up any of the water to which it's entitled. Such an account would effectively leave Colorado buying back its own water or other states potentially buying it on an open market and possibly undermine the states authority to control the river, an erosion of the century-long sway of the compact. Theyre going to try to break up the system.. Anyone can read what you share. Florida Power & Light, a part of NextEra Energy. If this water is to be sold to anyone outside the Grand Valley, then its gone, said Mr. George of the Interbasin Compact Committee. In the winter, 90% of vegetables consumed in both the US and Canada are grown with Colorado River water. Built in the 1980s, Pueblo West was growing too fast to keep up with its water needs, so it bought the ranch and its rights. A Florida ethics board has dismissed a complaint that allies of former President Donald Trump filed against Republican rival Gov. Fourth in a series. The tribal reservation in western Arizona includes more than 110 miles (177 kilometers) of Colorado River shoreline. 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. An earlier version of this story stated that the Imperial Irrigation District's allotment of Colorado River water is enough to cover all of its irrigated land with 5 inches of water. Half of those acres lie within the Imperial Irrigation District. Many see the compact as a safeguard isolating the river from the market. Were not going to wreck our local economy so that they can continue to grow their urban economy.. I have seen time and again the wisdom of using incentives that attract private sector investment and innovation, Mr. Eklund said. A historic influx of funding for infrastructure and drought response could also help New Mexico and other basin states reduce water use and prepare for a drier future. Valued at $2 billion after 14 years in existence, Australias markets primarily facilitate trades in agricultural areas. It certainly seems that we have to reset our expectations for what we might be trying to get out of the river, said Lpez, a former Reclamation commissioner. But here there was nothing to see: just an empty field of ankle-high weeds and crimson splotches of peat. Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. Marc Catlin, a third-generation farmer who represents western Colorado in the General Assembly, said, A farmers property is their 401(k).. Thats exactly what we were hoping that our use of surface water would allow the aquifer to do, Morris said. Thats not what water is meant to be.. The Biden administration helped pave the way for that offer by pledging $250 million for environmental projects to address the dust-ravaged shorelines around the Salton Sea, Californias largest lake, thats fed by agricultural runoff from the Imperial Valley. The Central Arizona Project, a 336-mile-long water delivery system, brings water from the Colorado River to Arizona's . Want to know how your actions can help make a difference for our planet? Andrew Leimgruber grows alfalfa and vegetables on his family's farm in the Imperial Valley. Most of the Imperial Valley actually lies below sea level, and well below the canal's starting point on the Colorado River near Yuma, Ariz. he says. Feb. 11, 2023 Updated: Feb. 11, 2023 10:50 a.m. Subsequently, the governments antitrust department started an inquiry. Most of the water in the 1,450-mile-long river comes from Colorado, and as that state's top water official from 2013 to 2017, James Eklund directed the creation of a comprehensive. "They have the most water, and in some senses the most power," she says. Is that something that can change? If severe, extreme drought conditions continued, then its easier for them to sell additional cuts, said Michael J. Cohen, a senior researcher with the Pacific Institute and an expert on the Colorado River. It has offered its own plan to conserve water. Back in the 1920s, they knew that if they didnt reach agreement, there were going to be winners and losers, so with a lot of wrangling and quarreling, they eventually agreed to agree, said Russell George, a former state representative from western Colorado who founded the Interbasin Compact Committee, a statewide governmental body devoted to seeking consensus on water issues. 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. Water curtailment has long loomed over the Southwest. The Biden administration is pushing to cut 2 to 4 million acre-feet in water usage, and is in negotiations with the seven states affected. So youre going to see a very important negotiation.. . The dry period has lasted more than two decades, draining the major reservoirs along the river. The Colorado River provides water to more than 40 million people across seven southwestern states, 29 tribal nations and Mexico - and a lot of major cities in those states are heavily dependent on . 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. (Photos: U.S. Geological Survey/Willie Taylor) Lake Mead is now projected to rise 33 feet higher than expected this year . In the last 10 years, the price of water there has gone up more than eightfold. WAM, based in New York and San Francisco, invests broadly in water-related ventures, and one of its core businesses is collecting water rights in arid states like Arizona and Colorado. They believe that the West has an outdated and overregulated system governing access to water, which has encouraged the cultivation of crops in the desert. So it's been a high market. Steve Benson returned to the family business, Benson Farms in Brawley, Calif., after a career in engineering and real estate. [1/3]An aerial view of Lake Powell is seen, where water levels have declined dramatically as growing demand for water and climate change shrink the Colorado River in Page, Arizona, U.S., November 19, 2022. Private investors would like to bring in or amplify existing elements of Wall Street for the water industry, such as futures markets and trading that occurs in milliseconds. These farmers, in Imperial County, currently draw more water from the Colorado River than all of Arizona and Nevada combined. The Imperial Irrigation District draws enough water from the river each year to cover. Were in a very fortunate situation here in Albuquerque to have two different and distinct sources of supply.. 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. Having a seat at the table means working with every tribe to learn their specific water rights and needs..
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