While the Colorado River Water Users Association held its annual meeting in Las Vegas to mull over the future of the Colorado River, leaders from the Lower Basin states of Nevada, Arizona and California agreed to voluntarily cut back their allocation from the river in an effort to stave off mandatory cutbacks.
The 500+ Plan requires the states to cut 500,000 acre-feet (one acre-foot is 325,851 gallons), or enough to service approximately 1.5 million households, from a river that provides water for 40 million customers annually in 2022 and 2023. Additionally, it requires the Lower Basin states to invest in water efficiency programs and projects to reduce usage. The conservation projects include funding fallowing farms to save water, including the recent approval of a short-term agricultural land fallow program in California, and urban conservation to reduce diversions from Lake Mead.
Arizona would invest $40 million, and California, Nevada and the Central Arizona Project—a canal system that delivers Colorado River water to southern and central Arizona—would invest $20 million each. The Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) will match the contributions, bringing the total to $200 million.
“Two decades of drought on the Colorado River is taking a toll across the basin and on Lake Mead,” said Camille Calimlim Touton, commissioner of the BOR, in a statement. “By working together, we’ve staved off these historic low levels for years, thanks to collaboration and conservation in the Lower Basin. But we need even more action, and we need it now.”
A second memorandum of understanding was signed between the federal government, the Colorado River Indian Tribes and the Gila River Indian Community. Under the agreement, Tribes will also leave water in Lake Mead as part of the 500+ Plan.
The 500+ Plan builds on the 2019 Lower Basin Drought Contingency Plan (DCP). The DCP included provisions from the Lower Basin states to contribute water to Lake Mead to keep it from dropping further and reaching critically low levels. The DCP also included a provision that additional action would be required if modeling indicates a possibility of the reservoir reaching an elevation of 1,030 feet.
In August, Lake Mead water levels fell below 1,075 feet, triggering a Level 1 shortage condition, which resulted in cutbacks to the Lower Basin states for the first time. Water levels were at 1,065 feet as of mid-December. Arizona experienced the largest cutback of 512,000 acre-feet, or 18 percent of the state’s annual allotment. Nevada and Mexico also had 7 percent and 5 percent reductions, respectively.
Despite signing the agreements, water officials acknowledged more needs to be done, as drought has caused less water to flow into the Colorado River. According to the BOR, inflows are projected to be 65 percent of normal, causing an imbalance in supply and demand as the river, which once averaged about 15 million acre-feet of water, has seen closer to 12 million acre-feet.
“The 500+ Plan is, as some have opined, a temporary solution,” Pat Tyrrell, Wyoming state engineer, said at the conference. “Work toward longer-term solutions to the challenges worsening hydrology presents us is left for another day—the day which we all know is coming very soon. In the end, our overarching goal must be to work toward a sustainable future for the Colorado River Basin. Period.”
Tribes seek inclusion
As the 100th anniversary of the Colorado River Compact approaches and the 2007 Interim Guidelines are set to expire in 2026, 30 Tribes who depend on the Colorado River are asking to be included in the negotiations. In 2007, the states adopted interim river management guidelines to respond to worsening drought conditions without input from the Tribes, despite having senior water rights of roughly 25 percent (or 3 million acre-feet).
“Historically, Tribes have not been a part of the negotiations around the management of the Colorado River,” said Maria Dadgar, executive director of the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona. “And let’s just say that’s past history because that is no longer the case.”
Leaders of the Tribes sent a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, urging participation in the upcoming negotiations.
“Basin Tribes are aware of ongoing efforts by the (BOR) and the seven basin states to adapt the (DCP) to the existing and emerging hydrologic conditions, and seek to be involved in these discussions and decisions,” the letter read. “Basin Tribes’ involvement in these ongoing decisions, as well as the process of developing the (long-term management of the Colorado River system), is a necessity with regard to, and in recognition of, the impacts to Basin Tribes of the continuing drought and looming basin-wide shortages.”
In the letter, the Tribes stressed that although the 2007 Interim Guidelines do not expire until 2026, the most significant parts of the negotiations are likely to unfold over the next couple of years as BOR initiates a formal environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act.
The Tribes met in late October to form an ad hoc group called the Colorado River Basin Tribal Coalition and develop a set of guiding principles. Among some of the principles, the coalition expects the Biden administration to “provide a written commitment as soon as possible, building upon existing federal mandates for government-to-government consultation with Basin Tribes.” The coalition asked the Biden administration to ensure Tribes have a role in the upcoming negotiations, ensure their water rights are protected and provide technical assistance to evaluate any impacts to Tribes.
In a recent trip to Nevada, Haaland said the Biden administration understands the importance of an “all of government approach” involving Tribes in discussions. — Charles Wallace, WLJ editor
