<\/p>\n
The water crisis along the Colorado River, a critical water source for California and six other states, has become so serious that the Trump administration is responding with emergency measures to prevent disaster at the nation’s second-largest reservoir.<\/p>\n
Efforts to raise Lake Powell’s water levels would result in reduced water flow to farms and cities throughout the Southwest. <\/p>\n
Action begins all the way to the Wyoming-Utah border, where the federal government plans to release large amounts of water from the Flaming Gorge Reservoir on the Green River, a major tributary of the Colorado River. Hundreds of miles downstream, it will help raise water levels in Lake Powell, which straddles the Utah-Arizona border and is three-quarters empty, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced Friday.<\/p>\n
Next, the Trump administration plans to retain more water in that lake and reduce the amount that flows downstream to Lake Mead near Las Vegas, which holds water for Southern California, Nevada and Arizona.<\/p>\n
The measure is intended to prevent water levels in Lake Powell from dropping so low that water can’t reach the intakes that turn turbines and generate electricity, a point that could happen by August.<\/p>\n
“This is a disaster averted and basically a one-year solution,” said Mark Gold, director of the Southern California Metropolitan Water District.<\/p>\n
He said a federal response was urgently needed “to basically stave off the crisis for a year.”<\/p>\n
On average, cities in Southern California get 20 to 25 percent of their water from the Colorado River. Farms in California’s Imperial Valley rely entirely on rivers to grow crops such as hay, broccoli, and lettuce.<\/p>\n
Reducing water releases from Lake Powell’s Glen Canyon Dam would require major water cuts in California, Arizona and Nevada, Gold said, but it has not yet been decided how those water losses will be distributed.<\/p>\n
The Bureau of Reclamation stated in its document: announcement<\/u> The river has reached 36% of its water storage capacity, and this year’s drought has intensified with the lowest snowfall on record and extreme heat.<\/p>\n
Other problems will arise if Lake Powell declines so much that the dam can no longer generate hydropower. Water would only be able to pass through four 8-foot-wide bypass pipes, limiting the amount that reaches California, Arizona, and Nevada.<\/p>\n
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum discussed the plan Friday in a virtual meeting with seven state governors. He said the approach would address “complex challenges created by an unprecedented drought situation that requires immediate action.”<\/p>\n
The federal government, acting under the 2019 Drought Agreement, will release between 660,000 and 1 million acre-feet from Flaming Gorge Reservoir over the next 12 months. At the same time, it would reduce annual water release from Lake Powell by more than 19%, or nearly 1.5 million acre-feet.<\/p>\n
River flows have decreased dramatically since 2000, and studies show that global warming is to blame. Dry conditions intensify<\/u>.<\/p>\n
Snowfall in the Rocky Mountains this year is only 22% of average, the lowest on record. The amount of runoff reaching the reservoir is predicted to decrease dramatically.<\/p>\n
Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir near Las Vegas, is currently at 32% full.<\/p>\n
California Colorado River Commissioner J.B. Hamby noted that conservation efforts have caused Lake Mead’s water levels to rise significantly over the past three years.<\/p>\n
“While these measures are preserving the system, the situation remains challenging and the outlook remains bleak,” Hamby said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith record snow levels and continued stress on Lake Mead and Lake Powell, we need to use every tool available to us,\u201d he said. “These are necessary short-term adjustments, not long-term solutions. True stability requires conservation of the entire Colorado River Basin.”<\/p>\n
Representatives from seven states are at an impasse in negotiations over long-term plans to reduce water use.<\/p>\n
Negotiations are currently at an impasse, Hamby said. Negotiators from the seven states have not met in person since January.<\/p>\n
“We need to evaluate all options going forward,” he said. “There’s too much at stake, especially for California, that we can’t figure this out.”<\/p>\n
With reservoir levels so low and negotiations failing, Gold said, “the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation had no choice but to step in and take bold action.”<\/p>\n
The Colorado River supplies water to approximately 35 million people and 5 million acres of farmland from the Rocky Mountains to northern Mexico. This water was originally divided among the states in 1922 under an agreement called the Colorado River Compact.<\/p>\n
Arizona officials have warned that the state could sue for violation of the agreement if the amount of water flowing into Lake Mead falls below a legal trigger point.<\/p>\n
The Arizona Department of Water Resources said in a written statement that the federal plan would provide “significantly less” water than needed.<\/p>\n
“Noncompliance with the Colorado River Seven-State Foundation Agreement is itself a serious matter, and Arizona will assess it and respond appropriately in a timely manner,” the newspaper said.<\/p>\n
But Arizona officials also praised the release of water into Lake Powell, saying it was “consistent” with the agency’s claims.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
#Trump #administration #takes #emergency #steps #preserve #critical #Colorado #River #reservoir<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The water crisis along the Colorado River, a critical water source for California and six other states, has become so serious that the Trump administration is responding with emergency measures to prevent disaster at the nation’s second-largest reservoir. Efforts to raise Lake Powell’s water levels would result in reduced water flow to farms and cities … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[929,935,926,725,940,924,932,939,937,493,930,933,923,290,925,336,942,941,931,938,936,934,617,928,927],"class_list":["post-559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-action","tag-administration","tag-arizona","tag-california","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-river-crisis","tag-considerable-amount","tag-critical","tag-emergency","tag-federal-government","tag-green-river","tag-jb-humvee","tag-lake-powell","tag-nevada","tag-other-states","tag-preserve","tag-reservoir","tag-river","tag-southern-california","tag-steps","tag-takes","tag-trump","tag-water","tag-water-level","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}