The US government has set out to protect the drought-ravaged Colorado River system. After talks broke down between western states on how to reduce water use.
The western United States has been hit by a 20-year 'great drought' linked to the climate crisis, with warmer temperatures reducing snow cover and thus less runoff into large bodies of water.
The Colorado River system is nearing a "tipping point," Camille Touton, director of the Bureau of Reclamation, which manages water and power, said at a press conference on Tuesday. Its largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are at historically low levels, with a combined capacity of 28%.
"Our mission is to protect a system meant to protect the people of the American West," she said.
The US government announced the first Tier 2 water shortage on the Colorado River. This means that some Southwestern states will have to impose new cuts in water use.
Arizona, Nevada and Mexico are also pulling from Colorado and should cut further from January. Arizona faces the biggest cut at 21% of its water quota. Nevada is facing her 8% cut, and Mexico will cut her 7%.
California, also in the Lower Colorado Basin, does not need to do any additional logging yet.
Water authorities in seven watershed states—Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming—had three choices about how dwindling supplies should be distributed. After months of consultations, no agreement could be reached by Monday's deadline.
All states are part of the 1922 Colorado River Compact. This compact was created when water supplies were much larger than they are today.
The meeting seems to have turned into bitter denunciations. A letter from John Enzminger, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said the negotiations "did not produce anything at all in terms of meaningful joint action to help forestall the looming crisis," Hill said.
Entsminger's letter accused the farm district of "drought profiteering" and said shareholders had "unreasonable expectations."
"The federal government, the basin states, and all water users of the Colorado River are complicit in allowing the situation to reach this point through our collective inaction," he said. wrote,The Hill.
Commissioner Tuton told reporters on Tuesday, "At present, the state has not identified a solution to stabilize the system," but federal officials will He said he hoped for "cooperation" and "partnership" with
Her Tanya Trujillo, assistant secretary for water and science at the Department of the Interior, said, "To avoid a catastrophic collapse and future of the Colorado River system, all departments in all states must use water. We have to reduce our costs and become more efficient," he said. of uncertainty and conflict.”
About 40 million people, along with Mexico, depend on the Colorado River for water, which is critical to the region's multi-billion dollar agricultural sector.
In addition to the effects of the climate crisis, poor planning has pulled more water out of Colorado than it can replace. Lake Mead water levels will be so low in 2021 that the US government has declared the region a water shortage for the first time ever.
Deputy Interior Secretary Tommy Boudreau described the situation as "dire," explaining that more than 70 percent of his western United States was suffering from severe drought.
"In this situation, everyone should fasten their belts," he said. But he added he was encouraged by "basin countries coming to the table" to meet the challenge. He also warned the bipartisan Infrastructure Act and the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law by President Joe Biden on Tuesday will be essential in attacking the drought crisis.
"We will use every tool at the federal level to protect the Colorado River system," he said.
This article is being updated