A Deal on Colorado River Water

I hope the deal works, at least in the short term:

The seven states that rely on the Colorado River for power and drinking water have reached a deal on cuts to keep the drought-stricken river flowing.

Three states — Arizona, California and Nevada — have agreed on a plan to conserve at least 3 million acre-feet of water by 2026 — roughly the equivalent to the amount of water it would take to fill 6 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.

...The seven states that rely upon the Colorado River were on the precipice of crisis after decades of overuse. Before a banner winter of snowfall, officials grew concerned as dams at Lake Mead and Lake Powell neared “dead pool” status — when flow would be cut off to lower regions of the river as water levels dropped too low to pass through the dams.

About 40 million people rely on the Colorado River for drinking water. Utilities depend on it to generate electricity at dams on Lake Mead and Lake Powell and keep power flowing in several states.

The deal could avert the near-term crisis and put the states on a more sustainable trajectory for water use, but it calls for less conservation than some scientists say is required to stabilize the river after a more than two-decade drought. The deal prevents a political predicament for the Biden administration, which would have been compelled to enforce cuts unilaterally if the states could not negotiate an agreement among themselves.

...As part of the agreement, the administration would use funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to compensate some farmers and other water users who temporarily agree to cuts.

As it analyzes the new agreement, the Biden administration has agreed to temporarily withdraw the plans it drew up for dramatic cuts in case the state negotiations failed.

Glennon said the proposals from the federal government — which laid out competing proposals with stark consequences if states couldn’t find common ground — “focused the minds” of negotiators and forced them to find tolerable cuts. The federal dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act will provide compensation for more than three quarters of the water conserved in the deal.

“Without that money, this deal doesn’t happen,” Glennon said.

...The Colorado River’s water is apportioned among seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. The river has been overallocated, meaning users collectively have rights to more water than what typically flows through each year, since its use was divided up in the 1922 Colorado River Compact and in subsequent agreements. The effects of climate change — which is heating and drying the Colorado basin — is squeezing the water supply even further.

“We need to reduce demand by up to 3 million acre feet per year to reach a balance in terms of our current supply and demand. This is a fraction, maybe a third, of what is likely necessary, but it is an important step,” White said.

...“The stakes for the 40 million people and farmland reliant on this water are too high,” Buschatzke said. “We can’t stop and take a long break and breathe a sigh of relief and say we’ve fixed our problems because we haven’t for the long term.”