Today it is 28% full. They're trying to jump on the market early and have the first lettuce to be harvested.". Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Close to 40 million people use water from the Colorado River. Steve Benson returned to the family business, Benson Farms in Brawley, Calif., after a career in engineering and real estate. A few years ago a firm called Greenstone, a subsidiary of a subsidiary of the financial-services conglomerate MassMutual, quietly bought the rights to most of Cibolas water. The Imperial Valley is a place of jarring contrasts. Selling the rights to a Rocky Mountain trout stream or a hayfield dating from the pioneer era to nonlocal interests, especially those seeking to turn a profit, has the potential to be seen as auctioning state patrimony. I have seen time and again the wisdom of using incentives that attract private sector investment and innovation, Mr. Eklund said. There is a myth about water in the Western United States, which is that there is not enough of it. Researchers at the New Mexico State University Agricultural Science Center in Farmington, N.M., works with . Negotiators have had a bit of help from nature to start the year. Imperial Valley farmers like Andrew Leimgruber, for their part, argue that they have a legal right to all of this water. On a map, this is the very top of the Gulf of California. Yeah. 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. (Photos: U.S. Geological Survey/Willie Taylor) Lake Mead is now projected to rise 33 feet higher than expected this year . Colorado River Water Users Convening Amid Crisis Concerns - US News Feb. 11, 2023 Updated: Feb. 11, 2023 10:50 a.m. "On the one hand, you have the most disadvantaged community, but in the same community you have some of the richest farmers!" A field of alfalfa, freshly cut, dries in the sun. Why do we need to take additional actions now when there was so much water through all these recent storms?. a line, or reservoirs have been emptied, have the water consumers show the amount of water they drew by raising their cups or calling out the amount. 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. Some fear that less water, and less farming, means fewer jobs and economic decline. A few of the fields are shrouded by showers of water delivered from long lines of sprinklers. Roughly 180,000 people, most of them Mexican-American, live here in towns that include El Centro, Calexico, and Brawley. And crisis drives change.. FILE - A buoy sits high and dry on cracked earth previously under the waters of Lake Mead at the Lake Mead . 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). All rights reserved. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in June told the seven states that are part of the Colorado River Basin Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming to determine how to use at least 15% less water next year, or have restrictions imposed on them. The gruesome discoveries renewed interest in the lore of organized crime and the early days of the Las Vegas Strip, just a 30-minute drive from the lake. Dealing with the threat of climate change to our water requires all sectors, public and private, working together.. John Hernandez, a Mexican-American activist, says that there's also a question of fairness if most of the money that the irrigation district gets for using less water potentially hundreds of millions of dollars each year gets passed out to just a few hundred farms. Imperial County is already one of the poorest in California. We let anyone come play.. "The water of every natural stream, not heretofore appropriated, within the state of Colorado, is hereby declared to be the property of the public, and the same is dedicated to the use of the people of the state, subject to appropriation as hereinafter provided." Article 16. The most comprehensive solution to manage all your complex and ever-expanding tax and compliance needs. The State of Colorado could actually buy the water from them, Mr. Libecap said. As of Wednesday morning, the surge of water released from the Glen Canyon Dam has reached Lake Mead, KTLA's sister station KLAS reports. In the West, few issues carry the political charge of water. "There's been a bad crop in northern California. Bureau officials use the image of pouring tea from one cup to another to describe how water from Rocky Mountain snowmelt is captured in Lake Powell, then released downriver through the Grand Canyon to Lake Mead. Dan Charles for NPR 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. From 2005 to 2010, California consistently used more water than any other state, followed by Texas, Idaho, Florida, and Colorado. But from the perspective of other states even those cuts wouldnt be nearly enough. Duke Energy Florida, a part of Duke Energy. The Colorado River is tapped out. According to water-policy professionals I spoke to, investors are already lobbying for it. The New Deal brings Colorado River water to a desert. Many experts see its decision to sit out the agreement as fuelling the chances that the water fight will end up in the nation's highest courts. Nor is it official policy yet. Greenstone then moved to sell the water to one of the right places: Queen Creek, a fast-growing suburb of Phoenix 175 miles away, full of tract houses and backyard pools. The emergence of open markets could outpace the negotiations. The rules governing the system are not sustainable.. New York investors snapping up Colorado River water rights - Reddit The Evergreen State takes the top spot again in the U.S. News Best States ranking on the strength of its tech sector and other industries. Utilities, which in previous dry years bought water from farmers, found they could no longer afford it. If nothing changes, within a few years, Lake Mead would drop to a level called "dead pool" and water would stop flowing through Hoover Dam. 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. You know, we in the water business have done a great job of saying, Waters the next oil, youve got to watch out, its going to be so valuable, he added. Cities use roughly 20% of the Colorado River's water, while agriculture uses approximately 80%. Thats not what water is meant to be.. Six of the Colorado River states agreed on water cuts. California did But those who deal closely with water will tell you this is false. But Colorado River and reservoir management was designed during a much wetter period. In theory, a market-based approach discourages wasteful low-value water uses, especially in agriculture, which consumes more than 70 percent of the water in the Southwest, and creates incentives for private enterprise to become involved. However, the same water could also flow where water often flows: toward the highest bidder. 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. The Radio Bookclub is a collaboration between KGNU and the Boulder Bookstore and is broadcast on the 4th Thursday of every month at 9am. The six states made their case in a letter to the Bureau of Reclamation on Monday. Copyright 2022 TheAssociated Press. The water tower in El Centro, the county seat of Imperial County, notes a geographic fact that shapes this area's destiny. When I reached Holly Irwin, a county supervisor who lives in Cibola, by phone a couple of weeks after my visit, she was angry. Traders could exploit volatility, whether due to drought, failing infrastructure or government restrictions. BruMate, which was founded in 2015 by now 25-year-old Dylan Jacob and featured in Forbes magazine recently, sells insulated can coolers, tumblers and drinkware. Five things you can do for the Colorado River: 1. Escambia River Electric Cooperative. In Era of Drought, Phoenix Prepares for a Future Without Colorado River Cibola, Ariz., is one of the wrong places. The giant reservoirs of Lake Mead and Lake Powell are shrinking fast, and the federal government is calling on all users of the river's water, which include farmers and cities such as Phoenix and Las Vegas, to come up with a plan to cut their water use. This novel introduces readers to Victoria Nash who is just a teenager in the 1940s, but she runs the household on her familys peach farm in the ranch town of Iola, Colorado. 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. 30 water suppliers pledge to address Colorado River shortage - Los Marc Catlin, a third-generation farmer who represents western Colorado in the General Assembly, said, A farmers property is their 401(k).. A field of alfalfa, freshly cut, dries in the sun. It's about the future of the whole valley. State Engineer Mike Hamman, New Mexicos top water manager, said the state really feels the shortages because it doesnt have the big reservoirs of other states in the Colorado River Basin. As WAMs Mr. Diserio likes to say, When you need water, water is the only thing that will do.. Its quite possible that there just wont be as much San Juan-Chama water available in the future because of drought and climate change.. In 2006, Pueblo West agreed to irrigate and revive the land. Andrew Leimgruber grows alfalfa and vegetables on his family's farm in the Imperial Valley. California receives the largest allotment, 80% of which is consumed by its $50-billion agricultural industry. Sept. 14, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. Increasing Pressures on Colorado River Water in New Mexico. If this water is to be sold to anyone outside the Grand Valley, then its gone, said Mr. George of the Interbasin Compact Committee. 5 Major Consumers of Water That Might Surprise You (c) 2023 KGNU News Boulder Community Broadcast Association, If The Colorado River Were A Bank Account, We Ran Out Of Cash More Than 20 Years Ago, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), https://kgnu-news.sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/4-27-23AK_ColoradoRiver.mp3, Seicento Baroque Ensemble Brings Landmark Performance to Colorado with Bach's, "St. John Passion", Colorado Tax Payers Gave Away A Lot Of This Year's TABOR Rebates To A Handful Of Wealthy Coloradans, After Deadly Prom Night Crash, This Year Boulder Parents Are Organizing After Prom Parties And Safe Rides Homes, Somatic Psychotherapist Speaks On The Art Of Healing Ceremonies, Fernanda Nieto Plays A Mean Piano & Speaks On Lack Of Diversity, Poet Exposes Injustices & Promotes Self-Love. More about the Colorado River - Colorado Public Radio 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. 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. It is just in the wrong places. Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the worlds largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. The whole history of the American West is about moving water, Mr. Gammage of Greenstone said. Were not going to wreck our local economy so that they can continue to grow their urban economy.. The price had risen tenfold in a matter of months. "You have a lot of leverage if you have a lot of water.". If someone was there to short water, they wouldnt be there anymore, he said. Arizona, by contrast, is entitled to 2.8 million acre-feet of Colorado River water every year. as temperatures rise, mountain snows melt faster in spring, and the state lacks capacity to store the runoff. According to the site below, 1.. This scene is unlikely to last, though. My fear is that the speculators are going to break it. The Colorado River Water Users Association conference, normally a largely academic three-day affair, comes at a time of growing concern about the river's future after more than two decades of record drought attributed to climate change. Anyone can read what you share. 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. Associated Press journalists Brittany Peterson in Denver, Sam Metz in Salt Lake City and Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona, contributed to this report. Farmland meets the desert, separated by an irrigation canal, near Fruita, Colo.CreditNick Cote for The New York Times. It can decide the fate of every part of the economy, from almond orchards to ski resorts to semiconductor factories. The Colorado River Compact was signed in 1922, just 10 years after New Mexico became a state. After . During the past two decades of drought, and particularly in recent years, the rivers flow has declined, but states continue to consume more than the river provides, based on a framework established a century ago. In the last few years, Colorado has been debating a water policy approach that has further piqued the interest of private investors: paying farmers not to use the river at all. Who are the top 5 consumers of the water of the Colorado River? Drafted in 1922, it allocates the rivers annual flow, dividing the water among seven states desperate for their share. Much of the West, including Los Angeles and Las Vegas, was made by moving water. Albuquerques municipal supply is entitled to as much as 15 billion gallons of San Juan-Chama water every year. 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. IID laid claim to water from the Colorado River before cities like Phoenix and Tucson showed up. 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. Instead, farmers are hoping for a deal in which the government will pay them to use less water. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes.
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