The photo depicts the Colorado River in Grand Junction taken from the 24 Road bridge on July 24, 2021. Notice the contrast in colors? Less than one mile upstream, the Gunnison River converges on the right south bank side flowing into the Colorado River. Water from the Gunnison appears to be more muddy possibly due to significant irrigation by farms causing increased erosion that causes sediments to runoff into streams.
The Colorado River basin ecosystem with about 40 million people who depend on stable water supplies, hydroelectric power that lights Las Vegas, and food crops distributed around the world, as well as numerous wildlife, are in a significant crisis - an existential threat. Even without the devastating impacts of climate change, there are too many people taking water out of the River than is being created by nature. Water managers call this “over allocation.” People are blaming the current extreme drought conditions but for longer term reasons and solutions we need to revisit our ancestor’s decisions to understand the truth that:
The River is Dying from Dehydration!
How did we get into this situation and what can we do about it? That has been a primary subject of this blog for the past six years and major motivation for advocating people Conserve in order to Prosper. Some of the factors occurred at the start of America’s expansion westward. Politicians did not listen to the first director of the U.S. Geological Survey, John Wesley Powell, who famously rafted through the Grand Canyon. He advocated that western states could not support building huge cities moving in from the eastern U.S. Few people really listened to Nature’s distress call when numerous dams were built by Herbert Hoover’s Bureau of Reclamation and subsequent generations - as if nature needed humans to reclaim the barren land. These bathtub evaporation ponds were built 50 years before the government required environmental impact statements which fortunately stopped major dam construction projects more recently.
The information used to determine how much available water the Colorado contained was overly optimistic - only about 10 years of data during a wet decade was used to determine how much water could be taken out. The 1922 compact among seven western states and a treaty with Mexico was based on flawed decisions using insufficient information to literally drain the life blood out of the River basin. A very slow painful death during the past century.
The Colorado River hit a new low this week. For the first time in almost 100 years of the seven state agreement to share water, the Federal Government issued mandatory water restrictions! That means that we all will need to use less and pay more for water, including farmers in Arizona who are growing water intensive crops like alfalfa or in California growing almonds. Homeowners can convert grass to beautiful desert landscaping using drip irrigation for a fraction of the cost and water demand.
For more reports, there is much information in the news including these resources:
National Geographic - The Water Crisis
Vice News - 40 Million People Rely on the Colorado River, Now it’s Drying Up
Washington Post Opinions - What to do about the Colorado River’s megadrought ‘code red’
BBC News - Colorado River: First-ever shortage declared amid record US drought
The Colorado Mesa University newsletter (email subscription to Hutchins Water Center) stated on August 20, 2021 that:
“SHORTAGE DECLARATION
The Bureau of Reclamation has declared the first-ever official shortage for the lower Colorado River basin, which requires delivery cuts to Arizona, Nevada and Mexico under the 2007 Interim Guidelines for operating Lakes Mead and Powell. The determination was made in response to the Mead elevation projected in the August 24-month Study. This Fact Sheet by the Bureau explains how the declaration was made, how much deliveries will be reduced and details about drought response operations. Under the shortage, Arizona will lose about 18% of its Colorado River supplies, the largest cut. This Central Arizona Project page has details on how the cuts will be allocated and how the state is responding.
CO DEMAND MANAGEMENT DISCUSSIONS
The Colorado Water Conservation Board's August 18 Demand Management Workshop included a hydrology presentation by Brad Udall, a summary of the Colorado River District's stakeholder report on Demand Management by General Manager Andy Mueller, and an update from Upper Colorado River Commission Interim Executive Director Sara Larsen on their Demand Management work, as well as discussion of the CWCB's Demand Management Framework and related information. You can watch a recording of the meeting here. “
So let’s all do more to learn how we can try to regain our balance with nature by taking positive individual and collective measures. That seems like something we could all agree on!