Leading the News: The Great Western Drought caused by climate change has plunged the country’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, to historically low levels. “It takes between 2 million acres and 4 million acres of additional conservation feet just to protect critical levels in 2023,” the Bureau’s Camille Calimlim Touton said on Tuesday.
The commissioner noted at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing that “there is so much to this that is unprecedented … but now the reality and the regularity in which Reclamation has to run our systems is unprecedented.” “The challenges we see today are unlike anything we have seen in our history,” he said.
Threat level: An April report found that the river, which provides drinking water to 40 million people in seven states and 30 tribes, is the most endangered waterway in the United States and a “zero point for climate and water crisis” in the West.
“We are 150 feet from the 25 million Americans who are losing access to the Colorado River and the rate of decline is accelerating,” John Etzminger, director general of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which feeds the Las Vegas area, told the Senate hearing. “What was a slow-moving wreck for 20 years is accelerating and the calculation time is near,” he said.
What’s happening: Touton said the Office was taking short-term action to prevent Lakes Mead and Powell from reaching a dead pool, where water levels were falling so low they could not flow beyond a dam.
“This is a priority for us, within the next 60 days, to figure out a plan to close this gap,” he said.
It is worth noting: About 80% of the Colorado River is used for agriculture and “80% of that 80% is used for livestock such as alfalfa,” which is grown mainly for cattle, Edzminger told senators.
“I do not advise farmers to stop farming, but rather to carefully consider crop selection and make the investments needed to optimize irrigation efficiency,” Edzminger said. “By reducing the use of Colorado River water, agricultural entities are protecting their own interests.”
Yes, but: Patrick O’Toole, president of the Family Farm Alliance, said he was concerned at the hearing that removing water from agriculture could affect rural communities, food production and increase food imports. Be smart: Entsminger said while the situation is bleak, it is not unresolved and pointed to Nevada water-saving policies, including paying customers to replace grass with plants, setting mandatory irrigation schemes and strictly enforcing rules for water waste as solutions that others could apply.
“We have removed enough grass to spread a lawn roll all over the Earth and we are not done,” he said, noting plans for stricter lawn restrictions, improved irrigation efficiency and reduced evaporative cooling. Etzminger and other water officials discussed with senators at the hearing how the federal government could improve the situation by funding infrastructure projects such as sewage treatment plants. O’Toole suggested water storage and improved forest health, and said farmers “should prioritize our ability to grow the same amount of food with less water.”
Go deeper: The discovery of the new drought on the Colorado River shows how bad things can get
