The Biden administration recently announced two options to increase water storage and ensure the long-term stability of the Colorado River that could impose cuts on the Lower Basin states.
The Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) released a new draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) that revises the 2007 Interim Guidelines for the near-term operation of Glen Canyon and Hoover dams.
“Drought conditions in the Colorado River Basin have been two decades in the making. To meet this moment, we must continue to work together, through a commitment to protecting the river, leading with science and a shared understanding that unprecedented conditions require new solutions,” said Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton.
“The draft released today is the product of ongoing engagement with the Basin states and water commissioners, the 30 Basin Tribes, water managers, farmers and irrigators, municipalities and other stakeholders,” she said.
The first option, Action Alternative 1, would primarily target the Lower Basin states of Arizona and Nevada and would mostly spare California, as it focuses on priority water rights. California has senior water rights to Arizona because the Central Arizona Project, the state’s largest water agency, has a junior status. The Lower Basin states split 7.5 million acre-feet (maf)—an acre-foot is 325,851 gallons—with California receiving 4.4 maf, Arizona 2.8 maf, Nevada 0.5 maf and Mexico 1.5 maf.
The alternative calls for progressively larger additional shortages as Lake Mead’s elevation declines, but is limited to 2.083 million acre-feet because this is the maximum volume analyzed in the 2007 Interim Guidelines’ final environmental impact statement. It also models larger shortages in the 2025-26 water years compared to the 2024 water year (beginning Oct. 1, 2023).
The second option, Action Alternative 2, is similar to the first option regarding how it models operational changes to Glen Canyon and Hoover dams but distributes the reductions equally between the Lower Basin states. This option would affect California the most, particularly the Imperial Irrigation District (IID), which serves farms in the state, and the Metropolitan Water District, which supplies water to cities in Southern California.
IID said in a statement it has concerns about an alternative that involves equal cuts among the water users. IID has senior rights to 3.1 million acre-feet of the Colorado River.
“Alternatives that skirt around long-standing water rights, as well as the agreements and laws put in place to address this situation, have the potential to jeopardize existing long-standing California water agency partnerships, and billions of dollars of long-term planning investments that have provided water supply resilience within the state for more than two decades,” IID General Manager Henry Martinez said.
Adel Hagekhalil, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, said either option is not ideal, but “we must develop equitable, realistic solutions that reduce reliance on the river by increasing water efficiency across agricultural and urban communities, developing new alternative supplies, and reframing the way we manage water as a basin.”
Written comments on the SEIS should be submitted by May 30, or they can be emailed to CRinterimops@usbr.gov or submitted to www.swcavirtualpublicinvolvement.com/cr-interimops-comment-form.
Conservation funding
The release of the draft SEIS comes on the heels of an announcement by the Biden administration of funding for solutions to conserve water in the face of the ongoing drought.
According to a White House fact sheet, the announcement of approximately $343 million in projects comes from a $15.4 billion allocation from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act that will save hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of water.
The majority of the funds, up to $233 million, is allocated to the Gila River Indian Community for water conservation projects, including $50 million to preserve up to 125,000 acre-feet of water via the Lower Colorado River Basin System Conservation and Efficiency Program this year.
The agreement also includes the preservation of up to 125,000 acre-feet of water in both 2024 and 2025, with an additional $50 million investment for each additional year. Additionally, $83 million will be allocated for a water pipeline to reuse up to 20,000 acre-feet of water for the Tribe.
Other projects funded under the Lower Colorado River Basin System Conservation and Efficiency Program for conservation funding over the next few years include up to $12 million per year for the next three water years to the Coachella Valley Water District for the conservation of up to 30,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Mead.
Additional funding includes $20 million for four small surface water storage and groundwater storage projects in California and Utah and over $54 million for repairs to aging infrastructure to improve water delivery, including $8.3 million for the Imperial Dam.
The announcement comes as the National Weather Service’s Colorado Basin River Forecast Center projects the April-July inflow forecasts for Lake Powell will be 11.3 million acre-feet, 177% of normal. The forecast stated that March precipitation increased the percent of normal snow water equivalent (SWE). In the April report, the SWE above Lake Powell was 169% above the 1991-2020 median and from 305-500% of the median in the lower Colorado River Basin. — Charles Wallace, WLJ editor
