SETH W. JAMES

Colorado River Update: action maybe, possibly to be considered at some point to avoid starvation and lack of water

May 12, 2023

By Seth W. James

On April 11^th, the Biden Administration published a new proposal for how to adjust the water allocations from the Colorado River to the seven states that rely on the river for drinking water and agriculture, a proposal that diverges significantly from the longstanding precedent, quaintly known as the Law of the River, which up until now has distributed the water based upon seniority, favoring California’s claims.  As the New York Times has noted, “The Colorado River supplies drinking water to 40 million Americans as well as two states in Mexico, and irrigates 5.5 million agricultural acres. The electricity generated by dams on the river’s two main reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, powers millions of homes and businesses.”

With such devastating impacts hanging in the balance, and the states that rely upon the river being unable or unwilling to reach a voluntary agreement, the new proposal would reduce the amount of water received by California, Nevada, and Arizona by up to one-quarter.  Those three states are the only three of the seven that the federal government can directly impact, through water releases from Lake Mead and Lake Powell.

The goal of the Biden Administration’s proposal is, as the Washington Post reports, “to assess potential rule changes for how water is released from Lake Powell and Lake Mead to protect these reservoirs from falling below what is known as “minimum power pool.” That’s the point at which the Glen Canyon and Hoover dams can no longer produce hydropower because there is not enough water to flow through the turbines safely. These reservoir elevations — about 3,500 feet above sea level at Lake Powell and 950 feet at Lake Mead — will be the thresholds that the federal government is working to avoid. Lake Powell stands just 20 feet above that level and is less than a quarter full.”

What is not clear is whether the Interior Department’s authority over Lake Mead and Lake Powell, and the water releases that deliver water to the three states impacted by the proposal, will stand up to legal scrutiny, if California, Nevada, and Arizona choose to challenge the rule change in court.  A long legal fight could be disastrous, as a stay imposed by the court to block action would continue the decades of inaction and overuse that have brought us to this brink in the first place.

A 45-day public comment period has begun for the proposal and the Interior Department is expected to make a decision this August.

As the IPCC declared in its AR6 report last month, only radical action can address climate change.  The Colorado River will continue to shrink as the parching of the west worsens and only radical action will preserve some usefulness from what water is left.  Change will come to the states that rely upon the river: the question is whether the change will be deliberate and effective, or if the change will come in the form of abandoned cities, food shortages, and massive internal migration.