Dealing with the threat of climate change to our water requires all sectors, public and private, working together.. The April selection for the Radio Bookclub is Go As A River by Colorado author Shelley Read. Its quite possible that there just wont be as much San Juan-Chama water available in the future because of drought and climate change.. 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. Californias cuts dont kick in until later essentially a gamble on good hydrology once again helping us avoid conflict by letting us use more water in the short term, Fleck wrote on his blog. Half is in its natural state, a bone-dry desert. To me, the value of water is to the grower and to the community that sends it down the river.. They also know that this crisis is so severe that famers in the Imperial Valley will have to cut back, too. The system of tunnels and dams at the New Mexico state line diverts water into the Rio Grande Basin. Some fear that less water, and less farming, means fewer jobs and economic decline. On a map, this is the very top of the Gulf of California. California receives the largest allotment, 80% of which is consumed by its $50-billion agricultural industry. Felt said, The water came off the land and it dried up, a common process known as buy and dry. Pueblo West, which was supposed to revegetate with native shortgrass, instead subdivided it into 40-acre parcels. Reclamation would perhaps not have been able to fulfill its contractual obligations to folks like the Navajo Nation and Jicarilla Apache and others that depend on water out of Navajo.. According to water-policy professionals I spoke to, investors are already lobbying for it. Access unmatched financial data, news and content in a highly-customised workflow experience on desktop, web and mobile. New Mexico still uses only about half of its allotment under the compact each year. But for more than a hundred years, millions of people have relied on the water that flows into the Colorado River from the Rocky Mountain snowpack. Instruct the economists to record Ultimately, we argued against it, he said. The previous owner had owned rights to the Chalk River, a tributary of the Arkansas, which irrigated the hayfields using ditches that dated from the Civil War. Theyd have to have a storage account of their own in a federal reservoir, and from my perspective thats a nonstarter, Mr. Mueller said. It's about the future of the whole valley. Subsequently, the governments antitrust department started an inquiry. Its important for us to invest in things like outdoor water conservation and reuse, Morris 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. 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. 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 by the six states Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming aims to protect the major reservoirs in Lake Powell and Lake Mead from falling below critical levels, such as when the dams would no longer be able to generate electricity or at dead pool, when water would effectively be blocked from flowing out of these lakes. If you're reading this, the chances are that some (or all!) The other half is mile after mile of green fields lined by irrigation canals. Agriculture uses some 80 percent of the rivers water and also tends to have the most senior rights, some dating back to the 19th century. Investor interest in the river could redefine century-old rules for who controls one of the most valuable economic resources in the United States. Farmland meets the desert, separated by an irrigation canal, near Fruita, Colo.CreditNick Cote for The New York Times. The Imperial Valley, by contrast, has only one source of water: the Colorado River, 80 miles to the east. Arizona city cuts off a neighborhoods water supply amid drought. Its not necessarily a new concept in parts of Southern California, farmers have been paid for more than a decade to fallow land. Water markets have been called a paradise for arbitrage, an approach in which professionals use trading speed and access to information for profit. A wet winter is now prompting federal officials to release more water downstream into the reservoir. T. Boone Pickens, the Texas oilman who died in 2019, was an early evangelist of water buys. Australia has also seen the advent of a market in complex financial products, such as derivatives, based on water. 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). What are the top crops grown in Colorado? Among conference topic titles are Messaging in a More Water-Challenged world and The Next 100 Years Begins Now.. The idea is, if you pay the farmers enough, theyll go away, said Brad Udall, a water and climate researcher at Colorado State University whose family have been lawmakers in the region for 60 years. But the states existing water conservation programs could be under increased scrutiny. California on Tuesday submitted its own proposal for how reductions should play out in coming years, depending on the elevation in Lake Mead. Reclamation water managers responded with plans to hold back more water in Lake Powell but warned that Lake Mead water levels would drop. Felt drove me in his pickup to a wide spot in a two-lane highway where trucks towing horses and inflatable river rafts whizzed past. Fourth in a series. Exclusive news, data and analytics for financial market professionals, Reporting by Liliana Salgado and Temis Tormo; Writing by Clarence Fernandez; It took two years to redirect the river back into its original channel. My fear is that the speculators are going to break it. "And there's not enough time to litigate these issues," added Hayes, a former top climate aide to President Joe Biden. The California proposal makes a constructive effort to uphold the Law of the River while making substantial efforts to protect the Colorado River system with voluntary reductions far beyond Californias legal obligations, JB Hamby, chairman of the Colorado River Board of California, wrote in the introduction to the plan. A Denver-based insulated drinkware company ranked the highest of the 151 Colorado companies on Inc. magazine's 2020 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America. These farmers, in Imperial County, currently draw more water from the Colorado River than all of Arizona and Nevada combined. of your water comes from the Colorado River. Copyright 2023 KVVU. 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. Although California was deluged for weeks from late in December by seven atmospheric rivers that dumped up to 30 inches (76 cm) of rain over some areas, little of that reached the Colorado River basin. In the last few years, a new force has emerged: From the Western Slope of the Rockies to Southern California, a proliferation of private investors like Greenstone have descended upon isolated communities, scouring the driest terrain in the United States to buy coveted water rights. But they will also be looking at rebalancing water levels in Lake Powell and Lake Mead, two federally owned reservoirs that hold water to use in case of extreme drought. Other fields are covered with alfalfa or grass that will become feed for cattle. Lake Powell's drop last March to historically low water levels raised worries about losing the ability perhaps within the next few months to produce hydropower that today serves about 5 million customers in seven states. In 2006, Pueblo West agreed to irrigate and revive the land. "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. The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. 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. This years meeting of water recipients begins Wednesday at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip. Youve got two drivers exacerbating the problem. 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. (Joshua Lott/The Washington Post) For the second time in six months, states that depend on the Colorado River to sustain their farms and cities have failed to reach . The Colorado River system is in a very dire condition, Dan Bunk, a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation water manager, declared during internet presentations streamed Nov. 29 and Dec. 2 that invited public comment about possible actions. Interior officials did not issue any mandatory water cuts for New Mexico. At the moment, though, the dismal vista remains: What had once been a flourishing meadow lined with cottonwoods and willows now looked like a giant abandoned lot. The State of Colorado could actually buy the water from them, Mr. Libecap said. Researchers at the New Mexico State University Agricultural Science Center in Farmington, N.M., works with alfalfa on July 22, 2020. 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. The event theme, A New Century for the Colorado River Compact, marks 100 years since a 1922 interstate agreement divvied water shares among interests in the seven states now home to 40 million people and millions of farmed acres. Tags: Associated Press, business, New Mexico, environment. Steve Benson returned to the family business, Benson Farms in Brawley, Calif., after a career in engineering and real estate. A Florida ethics board has dismissed a complaint that allies of former President Donald Trump filed against Republican rival Gov. as temperatures rise, mountain snows melt faster in spring, and the state lacks capacity to store the runoff. 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. "I think people would like to believe that we can somehow figure out a way to keep these economic activities, keep our kind of economies and livelihoods, going," Megdal said. It lies below sea level, allowing water from the Colorado River to flow there by gravity alone. Steve Benson, managing partner of Benson Farms, points out a neighbor's field where a crew is planting lettuce. WAM has become one of the largest landholders in the Grand Valley, a high-mountain desert on the Western Slope of the Rockies, 250 miles west of Denver. It is just in the wrong places. Thats not what water is meant to be.. In Australia, however, water markets have had unintended consequences. But once you know how to recognize them, they can seem to be everywhere. Top 5 US Consumers California is the largest consumer of water in the US. Officials fear complete doomsday scenario for drought-stricken Colorado River. Today, tribes are at the table and a Mexico delegation is due to attend the conference. Camille Touton, bureau commissioner, tempered a warning during the water webinars about federal intervention she called it moving forward on the initiation of administrative actions with a vow to find a collective solution to the challenges that we face today.. The Salton Sea still exists, although it's in deep trouble. From 2005 to 2010, California consistently used more water than any other state, followed by Texas, Idaho, Florida, and Colorado. Her life changes forever when she meets Wilson Moon, a young drifter, displaced from his tribal land in the Four Corners region.
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