For parched Arizona, wet winter means quenched thirst
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 17, 2010 at 6:44 amFrom the Arizona Republic:
“Winter storms plastered Arizona’s high country with snow and soaked the lower deserts with rain until the ground was almost sloshing, but that was just the first half of an increasingly wet story.
As temperatures rise this week, the snow will start to melt, gushing down streams and rivers into reservoirs that, in many cases, are already full. The overflow on the Salt and Verde rivers alone could exceed a year’s supply of water for Valley residents.
The runoff will ease drought conditions across much of the state, rejuvenating parched forests and rangelands and replenishing groundwater aquifers. Whether the winter has ended the drought, now more than a decade old, probably won’t be known for another year or more. It’s already clear that drought conditions will persist on the Colorado River.
The bringer of the bounty was almost certainly El Niño, an ocean-warming phenomenon that typically steers wet weather across Arizona and New Mexico. Storms have delivered nearly record rain and snow in some areas, with precipitation totals as high as three and four times the seasonal average. … “
Continue reading this article from the Arizona Republic by clicking here.
Aquafornia slideshow of the Lower Colorado River Tour
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 16, 2010 at 5:40 amLast week, I had the pleasure of taking the Water Education Foundation’s Lower Colorado River Tour. It was the first Foundation tour I had ever gone on, and certainly won’t be my last! Here’s a photo slideshow of the tour (note: it’s best to view this in full-screen presentation, which you can do by clicking on the “full” button on the presentation’s menu bar):
Just add water – Colorado Delta resurrects: Once written off, the Delta of the Colorado River has found a hardy band of NGOs and local governments willing to sweat to keep it wet
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 15, 2010 at 7:21 am
From Miller McCune Magazine, this second installment of a three-part series on the Colorado River:
“Driving across the western edge of the dusty, barren Sonoran Desert south of the border between the United States and Mexico, it’s easy to get the feeling that if it weren’t for the regular occurrence of irrigation ditches, there wouldn’t be any water there at all.
The fields are green, but everything, from crop leaves to cars to houses, is covered with a fine, dry dust. From Yuma, Ariz., through San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora and through the busy agricultural area on the way to the Gulf of California — also known as the Sea of Cortez — farms become less frequent and the terrain more featureless.
After a particularly jarring few miles on unpaved washboard roads, a little hamlet called Ejido Luis Encinas Johnson appears, the desert beyond the palm tree-bedecked oasis unfolding into a vast tan sheet. It takes another 20 minutes or so to drive across the shifting desert sand on a vaguely defined track until the Ciénega de Santa Clara wetland — 12,000 acres of reed-choked marsh that today makes up the terminus of the Colorado River Corridor — appears on the horizon. … “
Continue reading this article from Miller McCune by clicking here.
Research: Water imports no shield against drought for Colorado: The fates of the Colorado, Arkansas river basins are intertwined, researchers find
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 15, 2010 at 5:00 amFrom the Pueblo Chieftain:
“Simply bringing water from the Colorado River to the Arkansas River basin in Colorado does not improve protection against drought.
The surprising finding was shared last week at the Arkansas Basin Roundtable by climate researchers from Western Water Assessment, a hybrid agency that combines Nation Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and University of Colorado resources.
Western Water is studying future water projections for the Colorado Water Conservation Board.
“It has always been thought that if you are bringing in water from both sides of the Continental Divide, you have protection. That is not the case,” said Jeff Lukas, of Western Water. “While they vary from year to year, the dry years and wet years in both basins show a strong correlation.” … “
Continue reading this article from the Pueblo Chieftain by clicking here.
Something for Everyone: With 90 percent of its water diverted for agricultural and urban use, scientists and managers have to get creative about how they go about habitat restoration on the Colorado River
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 9, 2010 at 7:51 am
From Miller-McCune, this first in three-part series on the Colorado River:
“Along its 1,450-mile length, the Colorado River crosses some of the wildest and most barren landscapes in North America, weaving through parts of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California, and the Mexican states of Baja California Norte and Sonora before emptying into the Gulf of California. With headwaters in northern Colorado and tributaries throughout its course, the river is fed by snowmelt and the terrific storms, which only occasionally slam the parched American Southwest, dropping thousands of feet in elevation before it snakes across the broad alluvial plain downstream from modern-day Lake Havasu.
Before the dawn of the 20th century, the Lower Colorado could instantly change from a mere trickle after dry summer months into a muddy, raging torrent, carrying tons of sediment from the dry terrain above, after a winter storm. Since that distant time, human progress — in the form of several massive dams — has put a chokehold on the once mighty river, and what was an unpredictable beast has been tamed into a vital asset to millions of acres of profitable farmland and tens of millions of urban water customers. … “
Read more from Miller-McCune by clicking here.
Shell abandons Colorado water rights bid, placing regional oil shale development on hold
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 25, 2010 at 6:02 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
“Shell Oil Co. said Tuesday it is abandoning its quest for water rights from a northwest Colorado river to develop oil shale production, citing delays in the project due to the global economic downturn.
Colorado, Wyoming and Utah are thought to hold 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil in shale. But critics of a federal management plan for developing oil shale on public lands say the process would use too much of the region’s scarce water.
Shell was hoping to obtain water rights from the Yampa River. The company, which is the U.S. unit of Royal Dutch Shell, left open the possibility of pursuing the project in the future. … “
Continue reading this story at the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
USGS report details uranium resources and potential effects of uranium mining near Grand Canyon
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 19, 2010 at 5:53 amFrom the USGS:
“Flagstaff, Ariz. — As part of the Department of the Interior’s evaluation of whether to segregate nearly 1 million acres of federal lands near the Grand Canyon from new uranium claims, the United States Geological Survey today released a report on uranium resources and uranium mining impacts in the area.
The studies contained in the report looked at uranium found in breccia pipe deposits and explored the geological, hydrological, and biological issues related to uranium mining on Federal lands near the park.
“The current two year time-out on new uranium mining claims gives us an opportunity to gather the best science and input from the public, Congress, stakeholders, and Tribes on whether to withdraw lands near the Grand Canyon from new mining claims for a longer period of time,” said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. “The USGS’s report and ongoing research will be helpful to a thoughtful consideration of how to best manage these areas.” … “
Read more from the USGS by clicking here.
Drama unfolding amid beetles, birds and tamarisk
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 6, 2010 at 6:53 amFrom the Las Vegas Sun:
“Sometimes in nature, the simplest solutions lead to the most convoluted results. Take salt cedar, one of the great scourges of the West. Also known as tamarisk, it chokes out native plants, sucks up precious water like a sponge and ruins recreation spots.
It might have been good news that there’s a small, voracious insect _ the tamarisk beetle _ moving into the area from the north that, left on its own, seems destined to devour and kill salt cedars clogging washes and river banks.
But the salt cedar now has a hostage: the endangered Southwestern Willow flycatcher, a songbird that has adopted the plant as its habitat.
In the face of this ecological challenge, land managers are scraping together a desperate plan to save the bird and reinstate native ecology.
Federal agencies and conservation groups are on the hunt for money to introduce their strategy at the Lake Mohave reservoir on the Colorado River and along the Virgin River. … “
Read more from the Las Vegas Sun by clicking here.
Glen Canyon flush shows dam remains a sand trap; Scientists say success of 2008 flood release didn’t last
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 4, 2010 at 7:41 am
From the Salt Lake Tribune:
“Not quite two years after federal scientists blasted water from four Glen Canyon Dam release tunnels to simulate floods of pre-dam days, those experts acknowledged Tuesday only limited success in replenishing Colorado River sandbars and fish habitat.
Although the 60-hour flush in 2008 took maximum advantage of the natural flooding on the Colorado tributaries, 90 percent of the sand that would replenish the river’s ecology remains trapped behind the dam.
Theodore Melis, deputy chief of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center in Flagstaff, Ariz., said the 2008 test adds to the evidence examined from controlled floods in 1998 and 2004.
“What we saw [in 2008] was a direct benefit,” Melis said during a telephone news conference. … “
Read more from the Salt Lake Tribune by clicking here.
Grand Canyon flood paid off, temporarily
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 3, 2010 at 6:23 amFrom Arizona Republic reporter Shawn McKinnon at the Waterblogged blog:
“An experimental flood of the Grand Canyon nearly two years ago helped rebuild sandy beaches and fish habitat, slowed the spread of invasive plants and stirred up food for the trout upstream on the Colorado River.
But the gains in managing the river and its ecosystem
will remain short-lived without another similar flood and another one after that, scientists said Tuesday.“What we saw was a direct benefit to resources,” said Ted Melis, deputy chief of the U.S. Geological Survey Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center. “The hope is that all of that information will be considered as variables in long-term planning. The over-arching, long term questions can only be answered by a repeating of flows over time.” … “
Read more from Waterblogged by clicking here.
Chance of Rain: High good, low bad: Mead in January 2010
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 2, 2010 at 6:16 am
From Emily Green at the Chance of Rain blog:
“Recent rains throughout the Western states supplied by Lake Mead might give the impression that a more than decade-long drought affecting the Colorado River is over.
The numbers below, along with modeled projections from the federal Bureau of Reclamation for 2010, show just how false those impressions might be.
The “most probable” scenario in Reclamation’s model shows the elevation of the largest reservoir in North America dipping near 1,075 feet next autumn.
This is the elevation at which under a seven-state Colorado River agreement mandatory shortages kick in … “
Read more from the Chance of Rain blog by clicking here.
Western Water: The Colorado River: Building a sustainable future
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 1, 2010 at 7:53 am
From the latest issue of Western Water, this article written by Sue McClurg:
“Diverting water for farms and cities, generating hydro¬electric power, supplying an ever-growing urban population and protecting endangered species have all shaped the development and management of the Colorado River we know today. How to sustain the system and build a resilient future for what is known as the “lifeline of the Southwest” is the task facing the region and the river’s multiple users.
The list of major challenges facing the Colorado River’s diverse stakeholders – the states, the United States government, the Republic of Mexico, power suppliers, Indian tribes and environmentalists – is daunting: preparing for climate change, managing the river for both water supplies, power generation and environmental protection, settling Indian water rights claims, and reaching agreement with Mexico on transboundary issues. Historically, there has been much debate and disagreement (including litigation) over the river. Today’s issues are no less contentious, but at the Water Education Foundation’s September Colorado River Symposium, lead¬ing policymakers pointed to a series of recent agreements on water allocations and river operations as the foundation for future compromise.
“I would characterize the way that we have come to the point where we are now, which I frankly am currently encouraged by, is ‘the chaos theory of water negotiation,’” said Jim Lochhead, an attorney with Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. “We go through a lot of painful discussions with a lot of interests in the room. A lot of stuff gets thrown at the wall and at the end of the day we come forward with some pretty far-reaching and innovative solutions. And I think the lesson is that as long as we keep talking and as long as we bring different interests at the table we can move forward.”
In the past decade, several major milestone programs and policies have been adopted to address issues related to river restoration, water allocations, water marketing, groundwater banking, reservoir operations during droughts and ways to stretch water supplies through conservation and other measures. These agreements are now part of what is known as the “Law of the River.” Many regard the major components of the Law of the River as a constitution because it establishes a framework for managing the river’s resources. … “
Continue reading this excerpt from Western Water by clicking here.
Also, now available from the Water Education Foundation:
The Winter 2009-2010 issue of River Report, “Balancing the Colorado River’s Ecosystem and Water Delivery Capability,” looks at some of the issues associated with balancing the Colorado River’s ecosystem and its water delivery system.
Much of the content is based on the comments of a panel assembled at the Foundation’s invitation-only 2009 Colorado River Symposium.
Download the entire issue for FREE by clicking on the link below, or purchase a printed copy for $3.00 through our online store. Visit www.watereducation.org and click on the Products tab.
Arizona water official: Desalination an expensive but necessary prospect
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 26, 2010 at 6:01 amFrom Arizona Capitol Times:
“Desalinating ocean water is an expensive prospect but something Arizona must look toward in addressing population growth and increasingly dry weather brought on by climate change, a state official told lawmakers Jan. 21.
“As we plan for the future, we must plan for the eventuality that we must look at these kinds of future water supplies for parts of our state,” said Karen Smith, deputy director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources.
She addressed the House Water and Agriculture Committee, which later approved a bill to continue the agency.
Smith said officials are looking, among other options, at partnerships with states to fund desalination plants in California or Mexico under agreements that would allow Arizona and its partners to draw more water from the Colorado River.
She said officials also are looking at desalinating brackish water in aquifers to help assure long-term water supplies. That becomes more feasible as desalination becomes more affordable, but Smith said she doesn’t want to appear overly optimistic about the ease of developing new sources of water. … “
Read more from the Arizona Capitol Times by clicking here.
In Arizona, winter storms could be sign of waning drought: One wet week not enough, experts say, but El Niño may deliver more
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 25, 2010 at 6:19 amFrom the Arizona Republic:
“So is the drought over now?
Arizona’s water managers were prepared for the question after last week’s storms soaked much of the state and, for now, the answer is still “no.” One wet week won’t end a dry streak that has persisted for a decade and a half.
But ask again after a few more wet weeks and the answer might change.
“If we get some more storms like these, I think it’s going to be a fair question,” said Charlie Ester, water operations manager for Salt River Project. “After this year, if we get a lot more statewide storms, it’s going to be real hard to say with a straight face that the drought’s ongoing.”
What gives Ester and other experts pause when asked the “Is it over?” question is history. Each of the past two winters dripped with rain and snow early on, then turned dry before spring. A promising round of storms in December 2008 sputtered into 2009, which ended as the fourth-driest year on record statewide. … “
Read more from the Arizona Republic by clicking here.
An ignominious adventure by the Arizona Navy
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 24, 2010 at 7:29 amFrom the Arizona Star:
“Gather around, kiddies, and listen while Uncle Clay tells you about the time Arizona went to war with California.
No, this isn’t one of Uncle Clay’s tall tales. It really happened, although, as wars go, it didn’t amount to much.
‘Twas back in your great-grandmother’s day – 1934.
In the early 1930s, those California rascals started construction of Parker Dam on the Colorado River to supply water to southern California, even though the dam had not yet been authorized by Congress.
This greatly annoyed Arizonans, who said the Californians were stealing “our” water.
So, in 1934, Gov. Benjamin Moeur, a physician once credited with delivering most of the babies in Tempe, called out the National Guard and ordered the troops to the Colorado to block construction of the dam on the Arizona side. … “
Read more from the Arizona Star by clicking here.
Colorado official optimistic QSA ruling won’t hurt water deal
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 19, 2010 at 2:24 pmFrom the Fresno Bee:
“Colorado’s top water official is optimistic that a setback to a California water conservation plan won’t derail an agreement affecting the use of Colorado River by six other states in the West.
Dick Wolfe, director of the Colorado Division of Water Resources, said Tuesday that water officials have shown a new collective will to overcome obstacles to cooperation on the river.
A California state judge invalidated a conservation plan intended to curtail Southern California’s overuse of the river. Among other things, the plan called for an effort to restore California’s Salton Sea, an enormous desert lake.
The judge said California lawmakers hadn’t approved the state’s share of the Salton Sea project cost. An appeal is planned, and the judge left the deal in place for now. … “
Read more from the Fresno Bee by clicking here.
Expert: Colorado snowpack low, water supplies worrisome; Conditions are only slightly better than worst year on record
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 19, 2010 at 8:02 amJust because we’re getting hit with a lot of much needed precipitation, not everyone else is. Here’s some bad news for the other major water system serving Southern California. From Colorado’s Glenwood Springs Post Independent:
“A Colorado River expert is warning that there may be serious water shortages here and further west next summer, if the Colorado high country does not receive some serious snowfall before the spring runoff.
“We’re running way behind in snow pack,” said Dave Merritt, a board member of the Colorado River Water Conservation District.
The snow depths of the Colorado River basin, as they melt starting in the spring, create the runoff that fills reservoirs, ditches and other water systems all the way to the Gulf of California.
At a meeting of the Garfield County commissioners on Monday, Merritt said that the snow depths in the Colorado River basin is “a little bit better than 2002 right now.”
He later described 2002 as “essentially the worst year we’ve had on record” for snow depths, when the statewide snowpack was essentially gone by June. … “
Colorado Univeristy – Boulder law school studies possible reforms to Colorado River management
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 18, 2010 at 6:50 amFrom the Daily Camera:
“It’s become increasingly clear that the demands put on the Colorado River by the seven thirsty states in its basin are not sustainable.
A complex web of treaties, compacts, laws and court decisions govern who can use the once-mighty river’s water and when. But over the last several decades, those rules have not kept the yearly demand for water from exceeding the average flow.
“People have known since the 1940s, if not earlier, that this river was over-allocated and that, at some point, it’s going to be a major problem,” said Douglas Kinney, senior research associate at the University of Colorado’s Natural Resources Law Center.
“The demand on the river has grown slowly and steadily,” he said. “That, combined with recent understanding of what climate change is going to do to this region, all of a sudden has opened people’s eyes. Improvements need to be made to how we manage this river.” … “
Read more from the Daily Camera by clicking here.
Interview with Matt Jenkins of High Country News
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 14, 2010 at 7:23 amMatt Jenkins, author of the Westlands Water District article posted a few days ago, talks about the complex politics of the West’s most precious resource in this audio interview.
Click here for the audio interview with Matt Jenkins.
Waterblogged: No runoff love for Lake Mead?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 14, 2010 at 5:59 amhttp://aquafornia.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/lake-mead.jpg“>
From Shawn McKinnon at Waterblogged:
“Lake Mead will likely shrink further this year with little help from its upstream sibling Lake Powell, hydrologists now say, raising concern on the lower Colorado River.
Water levels at Powell aren’t expected to rise far enough during the spring runoff season to allow the government to release extra water down the Colorado into Mead, Bureau of Reclamation hydrologists said Wednesday. That will leave Mead dangerously close — within just over two feet — to the level used to trigger shortages.
The outlook has changed since late last year, when the agency predicted winter runoff could nudge Lake Powell over the level that triggers an adjustment to the amount of water released through Glen Canyon Dam. … “
Read more from Waterblogged by clicking here.
Colorado snowpack at only 86 percent of average
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 6, 2010 at 7:54 amFrom the Denver Post:
“Resolve to wish for more snow in the new year.
The latest monthly snowpack report puts Colorado river basins at only 86 percent of the average white pileup for Jan. 1.
The accumulation is the lowest statewide since 2003, when the number hit 85 percent of average, according to Mike Gillespie of the Natural Resources Conservation Service snow survey.
Readings are below average in the catchments for all the major rivers, with southwest Colorado enjoying the best totals. The San Juan, Animas, Dolores and San Miguel river basins caught the greater part of Colorado’s December storms and are at 97 percent of normal. … “
Read more from the Denver Post by clicking here.
New Drop 2 Reservoir to conserve Colorado River water nearing completion, may be done ahead of schedule
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 3, 2010 at 7:07 am
Just for fun today, regional stories are posted from south to north, and so, accordingly, we begin with this from the Yuma Sun:
“Not all the work that travelers can see along Interstate 8 is for the construction of a new concrete-lined stretch of the All American Canal.
Crews also are in the midst of constructing a new water storage reservoir about 25 miles west of Yuma where the former Brock Ranch Experimental Research Station was located.
That’s the reason for a slight detour along I-8 while crews lay 9-foot pipes under the freeway. Or the sight of cranes where palm trees once were located on the north side of the freeway.
Once completed, the polyethylene-lined two-cell reservoir will have a storage capacity of 8,000 acre-feet of water and inlet and outlet structures to connect the reservoir to the All American Canal. It is anticipated that the reservoir will capture about 70,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water a year for future use. … “
Read more from the Yuma Sun by clicking here.
One “drop” at a time… New Reclamation reservoir to provide additional water storage for the Southwest
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 3, 2010 at 7:03 am
From the Bureau of Reclamation:
“An innovative, cooperative water conservation project is taking shape in the Southern California desert just north of the Mexican border. Constructed by the Bureau of Reclamation and funded by partners from three states, the project – known as the Drop 2 Storage Reservoir – will save, on average, 23 billion gallons of Colorado River water per year.
The project’s name refers to the reservoir’s location just north of the All-American Canal’s Drop Structure Number 2, about 30 miles east of El Centro, California. A “drop structure” is a point where water drops from one canal section into another at a lower elevation.
This portion of the Drop 2 project – the outlet structure – will allow water to flow from the reservoir back into the All-American Canal for delivery to farms and businesses in the Imperial Valley.The reservoir will capture river water that has been released from Parker Dam near Lake Havasu City, Arizona, to meet downstream water orders that have been suddenly cancelled for a variety of reasons. For example, a farm that is heavily rained on may cancel or reduce its order of Colorado River water, or a city could reduce its request because of unexpected canal maintenance. But since the water takes up to 3 days to reach its destination after it’s released from Parker Dam, the cancellation requests may have come too late to hold the water in Lake Havasu. And since there are limited places to store this non-usable water downstream of the dam, it usually flows to Mexico.
The United States is required by an international treaty to supply 1.5 million acre-feet (about 500 billion gallons) of Colorado River water to Mexico each year. But the extra water that flows into Mexico from cancelled water orders is not credited toward this requirement. So the United States is building the Drop 2 Storage Reservoir to help the American Southwest more efficiently use its precious – and limited – Colorado River resources. … “
Find out more about the Drop 2 Reservoir project from the Bureau of Reclamation by clicking here. Click here for extensive photo gallery of the construction.
Chance of Rain: High good, low bad, Lake Mead elevations 1999-2009
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 2, 2010 at 7:50 am
From Emily Green at the Chance of Rain blog:
“Not everything went down during the Noughties. While federal Bureau of Reclamation records show that the elevation of Lake Mead, the major “lower basin” Colorado River reservoir serving Arizona, California and Nevada, fell more than 117 feet, the population of the US states served by Mead rose. The US Census Bureau estimates that the population of the driest state in the country, Nevada, climbed 32.3%, while Arizona’s increased 28.6% and California’s 9.1%.
If Lake Mead were a financial institution, people might, stress on might, question the logic of outgrowing one’s resources. But the spendthrift lower basin states such as Nevada have traditionally had a back-up plan when it came to getting more water … “
Read more from the Chance of Rain blog by clicking here.
16 million tons of uranium mill tailings moving away from Colorado River site
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 28, 2009 at 6:53 amFrom the Grand Junction Sentinel:
“Crews have taken the first bites out of the old uranium mill-tailings pile in Moab, Utah, beginning a yearslong process of transferring it far from the Colorado River.
Abut 630,000 tons will have been moved from Moab to the disposal cell near Crescent Junction by year’s end, said Wendee Ryan of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Energy Department and its contractor, Energy Solutions Corp., began moving the tailings pile this year.
Moab residents and downstream water providers lobbied for years to have the 16-million-ton pile of mill tailings moved from its spot along the north bank of the Colorado River to a cell up against the Bookcliff Mountains at Crescent Junction that is deemed less likely to contaminate the river.
The pile is being moved by train from Moab to the disposal cell 30 miles north. … “
Read more from the Grand Junction Sentinel by clicking here.
State of water depends on the Colorado River
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 27, 2009 at 6:49 amFrom the Las Vegas Sun, this commentary by Pat Mulroy of the Southern Nevada Water Authority:
“In the coming decade our primary water source, the Colorado River, will have more years with less water than years with more water. Still, I’m optimistic that Las Vegas will be ready for whatever nature throws our way.
If the drought gets very severe in the Colorado River Basin, water should become a national topic, and we’ll be talking about retooling the nation’s water supply as a whole. A lot depends on whether there’s a larger national solution or if Southern Nevada has to take care of itself.
By 2020 I think we will have developed partnerships with Mexican entities for desalination plants and exchanging water on the Colorado River.
As far as the pipeline to bring water from Northern Nevada to Southern Nevada, you tell me what the hydrology in the Snake Valley Basin looks like in 2020 and I’ll tell you if we’re going there. If Southern Nevada has to fend for itself, I think we’ll have no choice but to develop that water supply. We can’t desalt our way out of this problem; the solution has to be larger and more dramatic. … “
Read more from the Las Vegas Sun by clicking here.
HCN Slideshow: Life along the Colorado River
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 24, 2009 at 7:46 amFrom High Country News:
“The desert Southwest is unlikely to run out of water. But under the pressures of climate change and drought, population and politics, the Southwest is likely to run out of cheap water. The deal of the century will become last century’s deal.
Last summer, inspired by an environmental policy class at the University of Colorado at Boulder, 23-year-old Kasia Broussalian set out to meet and photograph some of the people who depend on the precarious generosity of the Colorado River. … “
Read more from the High Country News by clicking here. View a slideshow of the pictures by clicking here.
Colorado River water pact in jeopardy: Ruling covering Salton Sea could unravel complex deals
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 17, 2009 at 8:17 am
From the San Diego Union Tribune:
“Southern California’s water managers insist it should be easy to overcome the latest challenge to a landmark, seven-state pact to share the Colorado River that also produced a vast new supply of water for the San Diego region.
But nearly a century of litigation and political turmoil has shown that when it comes to water-use conflicts in the West, there are few easy remedies.
The latest example comes from Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Roland Candee, who has identified a flaw in the agreement that he said could invalidate at least the provisions unique to California.
At a hearing today, Candee could finalize the tentative ruling he issued last week, which centered on a side element of the pact — how much money the Legislature should commit to restoring the Salton Sea. … “
Read more from the San Diego Union Tribune by clicking here.
Water planning after the age of infrastructure
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 15, 2009 at 8:20 amFrom Planetizen, an article on that begins with the early history of the Colorado River, and continues:
” … As the Homestead Act was pushing farmers westward and checkerboarding the uninhabited territories, Powell compiled his experiences exploring the rivers and lands of the western U.S. into a report and presented it to Congress in 1875. He advised an almost complete halt to the settlement of the West, suggesting that the western U.S. wouldn’t be able to support agriculture without extensive irrigation, and that without a more scientifically-based distribution of water rights, any further settlement would lead to devastation. Watersheds, he said, should define the location and extent of land settlement. Congress summarily dismissed his suggestions.
Instead, the country was taken into a century-long binge of engineering projects to command and control the rivers of the Western United States – corralling and contorting wild rivers to meet the needs of the growing west and, in many cases, dictating how and where it would grow.
But those days are over.
“You will never see another federal dam,” U.S. Department of the Interior Deputy Assistant Secretary Deanna Archuleta said at a recent symposium on water and land use in the West, hosted by the Urban Land Institute in partnership with the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the Sustainable Sites Initiative, and Ernst & Young. Conspicuously held in Las Vegas, the event drew together a spectrum of developers, policymakers and academics to explore the role of water in the future of development in the arid region. As resources dry up and sustainability issues take a bigger place in the spotlight, many attendees concede that something has to change. … “
Read more from Planetizen by clicking here.
Colorado River Citizens Forum takes place in Valley
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 15, 2009 at 7:14 amFrom the Imperial Valley Press:
“The International Boundary and Water Commission held its Colorado River Citizens Forum in El Centro on Monday to update the forum’s board on various projects in the Valley. The event took place in the Imperial Irrigation District’s Condit Auditorium on Broadway Street.
Anna Morales is area operations manager for the International Boundary and Water Commission’s Yuma office. She said the commission, based in El Paso, Texas, serves the region’s cross-border water interests. “We’re like a liaison between both countries,” Morales said.
She said the commission allows various beneficiaries of Colorado River water to keep other agencies updated on new developments.
“We’re the forum to let other agencies know what’s going on with relation to projects along the border and the Colorado River,” Morales said. … “
Read more from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
Saturday’s top of the scroll: Grand Canyon sandbar restoration planned with high water flows from Glen Canyon dam
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 12, 2009 at 9:32 am
From the Environment News Service:
“The Department of the Interior will undertake an experimental initiative to improve the management of Glen Canyon Dam and the Colorado River as it flows through Grand Canyon National Park, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced Thursday during the Colorado River Water Users Association conference.
“We must find a way to protect one of the world’s most treasured landscapes, the Grand Canyon, while meeting water and clean energy needs in the face of climate change,” Salazar said in a video message to the water users’ meeting at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. The video was taped in Copenhagen where Secretary Salazar is participating in the global climate change conference.
“Today, I am directing the development of a protocol for conducting additional high flow experiments at the dam,” Salazar said.
“These experimental high flows, like the one in 2008, send sediment downstream to rebuild sandbars, beaches and backwaters. The rebuilt areas provide key wildlife habitat, enhance the aquatic food base, protect archeological sites, and create additional camping opportunities in the canyon,” he said. … “
Read more from the Environment News Service by clicking here. Brief coverage of this story from the Associated Press by clicking here.
Sunday’s top of the scroll: Meager monsoon worsens Arizona’s drought while upstream, the Colorado River drops to a record-low flow
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 22, 2009 at 7:00 am
From the Arizona Republic:
“Rain and snow have ended droughts across much of the United States this year, but in Arizona, conditions have worsened, further extending a dry streak that reaches back to 1996.
A weak monsoon season, bookended by meager rain in the months before and after, turned the rangelands brittle and allowed the summer wildfire season to linger through autumn. Dwindling water resources forced ranchers to sell livestock and drained watering holes that sustain wildlife.
In the high country, the soil is so parched it will likely soak up some of the spring snowmelt before the water can flow into rivers and reservoirs, blunting in part the effects of El Niño, a shift in ocean temperatures that can produce wetter winters in Arizona.
Enough water is stored from past years to protect Phoenix from shortages no matter what happens this winter, but the rest of the state faces a bleaker outlook that could include conservation measures or even water hauling in some places if weather patterns
don’t change. … “
Read more from the Arizona Republic by clicking here.
Colorado is also feeling the dry, as part of the river flowing through Summit County experienced record-low flow levels, according to the Summit Daily News:
“SUMMIT COUNTY — The latest predictions for a mid-winter dry spell may cause some headaches for Colorado water managers as they try to juggle supplies to maintain stream flows and fill reservoirs.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is forecasting that a strong El Niño may lead to dry conditions in the state’s northern and central mountains at least until March, based on historic patterns associated with above-normal sea surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific.
Stream flows in Summit County are not too far off seasonal norms, but the Colorado River at Kremmling recently experienced an all-time record low flow for that date, according to local water commissioner Scott Hummer.
The Colorado was only flowing at 280 cubic feet per second on Nov. 16, and flows farther downstream were also well below average, Hummer said. The previous minimum for the date was 330 cfs in 1978.
“I can’t find a rhyme or reason as to why we’re starting to see these low flows so early in the season,” Hummer said. … “
Read more from the Summit Daily News by clicking here.
Photo of Arizona desert watchtower by flickr photographer dkabanek (Creative Commons).
Lawsuit challenges uranium mine that threatens water and wildlife of the Grand Canyon
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 16, 2009 at 4:46 pmFrom the Center for Biological Diversity, this press release:
“Today the Center for Biological Diversity, Grand Canyon Trust, and Sierra Club filed suit in an Arizona federal court challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s approval of the restart of a defunct uranium mine just north of Grand Canyon National Park.
The conservation groups are suing over the Bureau’s failure to update 1980s-era environmental reviews and mining plans prior to allowing Denison Mines Corporation to begin mining at the “Arizona 1” mine. The mine was partially constructed in the late 1980s and early 1990s but was closed due to market conditions in 1992 without producing any uranium ore. The Bureau of Land Management did not respond to a September legal notice from conservation groups urging the agency to correct course in order to avoid today’s litigation. The mine is within the same area that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar placed off-limits to new mining claims and operations in an order issued in July of this year.
Today’s suit cites violations of National Environmental Policy Act provisions that require the land-management agency to consider new information regarding the hydrology, spring ecology, and biodiversity of the area in order to accurately evaluate the impacts of the mine. An update to an outdated 1988 environmental assessment, as well as a more thorough analysis, is warranted given new information, circumstances, and public controversy about renewed uranium mining near Grand Canyon. The suit also cites violations of the Endangered Species Act in the federal government’s failure to ensure that new mining will not jeopardize threatened and endangered species or their critical habitat — including Colorado pikeminnow, humpback chub, bonytail, razorback sucker, southwestern willow flycatcher, and Mexican spotted owl. …”
Read more from the Center for Biological Diversity by clicking here.
Waterblogged: The odds of finding water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 12, 2009 at 8:12 amFrom Sean McKinnon of the Waterblogged blog:
“For nearly a century, one of the surest way to forecast future water supplies was to look into the past. Weather records, runoff histories, snowpack trends all were reasonably accurate barometers of what was to come.
Now the past is increasingly just that. Past.
Changes in the climate have rendered history far less useful by altering the constants — temperature, precipitation patterns, seasonal shifts. Winter no longer arrives and departs when it once did and that means the snow might melt earlier or faster if it fell at all.
Eric Kuhn, general manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District up in Glenwood Springs, talks about the challenges in an interesting Q&A posted by Carpe Diem, the Western Water and Climate Change project. Here’s what he says: …”
Read more from Waterblogged by clicking here.
GREAT WEBSITE TO CHECK OUT ON CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE WEST:
“The Carpe Diem – Western Water & Climate Change Project is a network of experts and decision makers dedicated to addressing the unprecedented challenge that the impacts of climate change on water resources pose for the western United States. It was established in 2007 by a group of western water leaders acting on a shared belief that climate change requires everyone in the field to think in new ways. The Project is housed at Exloco, a nonprofit organization with expertise in spotlighting critical issues and facilitating strategic thinking. … “
To visit the Carpe Diem website, click here
Yuma desalter will desalt again, briefly
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 10, 2009 at 6:25 am
From Arizona Republic reporter Shawn McKinnon and the Waterblogged blog:
“The Bureau of Reclamation will fire up the Yuma Desalting Plant in May for the longest test run since the facility was mothballed more than 15 years ago.
The plant will produce 21,700 acre-feet of treated water, which will be returned to the Colorado River along with another 7,000 acre-feet of untreated agricultural runoff. The full amount will flow south into Mexico as part of that county’s 1.5 million acre-feet water allocation.
When it’s all over, storage at Lake Mead will grow by nearly 29,000 acre-feet — the amount the bureau wouldn’t have to release for Mexico — and while that’s a small amount, but enough, water managers say, to demonstrate the potential value of augmenting the river’s flow.
“Drought, population growth and the continuing need for water in the Southwest have increased the demand on the Colorado River,” said Lorri Gray-Lee, director of the bureau’s Lower Colorado region. “This collaborative undertaking is one more example of the on-going State-Federal partnership effort to address the drought’s impacts, conserve and stretch the river’s water supply and identify and secure additional supplies.” …”
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