Latest news with #U.S.BureauofReclamation
2 days ago
- Politics
Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will again get less Colorado River water in 2026
DENVER -- Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will again live with less water from the Colorado River as drought lingers in the West, federal officials announced Friday. The Colorado River is a critical lifeline to seven U.S. states, 30 Native American tribes, and two Mexican states. The cuts are based on projections for levels at federal reservoirs — chief among them Lake Powell and Lake Mead — released every August by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Arizona will again go without 18% of its total Colorado River allocation, while Mexico loses 5%. The reduction for Nevada — which receives far less water than Arizona, California or Mexico — will stay at 7%. California won't face any cuts because it has senior water rights and is the last to lose in times of shortage. Decades of overuse and the effects of long-term drought worsened by climate change means there's far more demand for water than what actually flows through the river. Low reservoir levels at Lake Mead have triggered mandatory cutbacks every year since 2022, with the deepest cuts in 2023, which hit farmers in Arizona the hardest. Meanwhile, the states are working to reach agreement by next year on new long-term rules to govern the river in dry years. The Trump administration gave a mid-November deadline for states to reach a preliminary agreement, or risk federal intervention. Negotiations have faced delays as states push back against how much water they should each give up. The original 1922 Colorado River Compact was calculated based on an amount of water that doesn't exist in today's climate. That leaves the Upper Basin states of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Utah to share far less water after the required amount is sent to the to the 'Lower Basin' states of Nevada, Arizona and California. Lots of water is also lost to evaporation and leaky infrastructure. Fairly splitting the river's water in the era of climate change has been vexing for years, with all of the major users hesitant to give anything up as they anticipate a drier future. There has to be enough water in the reservoirs to reach the tunnels that usher water downstream, and ideally, even more water for hydropower generation. Key infrastructure like the Hoover Dam rely on certain water levels in Lake Mead to generate electricity. Mandatory cuts and emergency water releases are 'reactive," said John Berggren, a regional policy manager at Western Resource Advocates, a nonprofit focused on climate change. 'If we are going to be able to have a sustainable Colorado River and not just be responding to crisis after crisis, we need large amounts of flexibility built into this new set of guidelines," he said. 'We can and must do better. Nature isn't waiting for us,' said Becky Mitchell, Colorado's commissioner in the Upper Colorado River Commission. States are considering a so-called natural flow approach to managing the river — where the Lower Basin would receive a certain percentage of the average natural flow from the prior few years. The Lower Basin states have helped stave off deeper cuts by coming up with voluntary conservation plans. 'Absent all of those measures, the river would be in a very bad place,' said J.B. Hamby, chairman of the Colorado River Board of California and a board member for the Imperial Irrigation District, the largest user of the river's water. Still, he knows California, like others, will likely have to give up more in the negotiations. Dozens of conservation projects along for Upper Basin states and tribes are in limbo. President Donald Trump froze yet-to-be-distributed Inflation Reduction Act funds on his first day in office, which included nearly $400 million for those projects. The entire Colorado congressional delegation signed a letter earlier this month urging the release their portion of those funds. ___ This story has been corrected to remove a reference to the third year of cuts in the headline. The cuts announced Friday are set for 2026, which will be the fifth year. ___ Associated Press journalists Amy Taxin in Tustin, California, and Mead Gruver in Fort Collins, Colorado, contributed to this report. ___
3 days ago
- Politics
Arizona, Nevada and Mexico get less Colorado River water for a third year
DENVER -- Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will again live with less water from the Colorado River as drought lingers in the West, federal officials announced Friday. The Colorado River is a critical lifeline to seven U.S. states, 30 Native American tribes, and two Mexican states. The cuts are based on projections for levels at federal reservoirs — chief among them Lake Powell and Lake Mead — released every August by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Arizona will again go without 18% of its total Colorado River allocation, while Mexico loses 5%. The reduction for Nevada — which receives far less water than Arizona, California or Mexico — will stay at 7%. California won't face any cuts because it has senior water rights and is the last to lose in times of shortage. Decades of overuse and the effects of long-term drought worsened by climate change means there's far more demand for water than what actually flows through the river. Low reservoir levels at Lake Mead have triggered mandatory cutbacks every year since 2022, with the deepest cuts in 2023, which hit farmers in Arizona the hardest. Meanwhile, the states are working to reach agreement by next year on new long-term rules to govern the river in dry years. The Trump administration gave a mid-November deadline for states to reach a preliminary agreement, or risk federal intervention. Negotiations have faced delays as states push back against how much water they should each give up. The original 1922 Colorado River Compact was calculated based on an amount of water that doesn't exist in today's climate. That leaves the Upper Basin states of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Utah to share far less water after the required amount is sent to the to the 'Lower Basin' states of Nevada, Arizona and California. Lots of water is also lost to evaporation and leaky infrastructure. Fairly splitting the river's water in the era of climate change has been vexing for years, with all of the major users hesitant to give anything up as they anticipate a drier future. There has to be enough water in the reservoirs to reach the tunnels that usher water downstream, and ideally, even more water for hydropower generation. Key infrastructure like the Hoover Dam rely on certain water levels in Lake Mead to generate electricity. Mandatory cuts and emergency water releases are 'reactive," said John Berggren, a regional policy manager at Western Resource Advocates, a nonprofit focused on climate change. 'If we are going to be able to have a sustainable Colorado River and not just be responding to crisis after crisis, we need large amounts of flexibility built into this new set of guidelines," he said. 'We can and must do better. Nature isn't waiting for us,' said Becky Mitchell, Colorado's commissioner in the Upper Colorado River Commission. States are considering a so-called natural flow approach to managing the river — where the Lower Basin would receive a certain percentage of the average natural flow from the prior few years. The Lower Basin states have helped stave off deeper cuts by coming up with voluntary conservation plans. 'Absent all of those measures, the river would be in a very bad place,' said J.B. Hamby, chairman of the Colorado River Board of California and a board member for the Imperial Irrigation District, the largest user of the river's water. Still, he knows California, like others, will likely have to give up more in the negotiations. Dozens of conservation projects along for Upper Basin states and tribes are in limbo. President Donald Trump froze yet-to-be-distributed Inflation Reduction Act funds on his first day in office, which included nearly $400 million for those projects. The entire Colorado congressional delegation signed a letter earlier this month urging the release their portion of those funds.
USA Today
3 days ago
- Climate
- USA Today
Water levels plunge at Lake Powell. Is 'dead pool' looming?
Sinking water levels at the giant reservoir on the Utah-Arizona border have led to renewed concerns about power generation and water supply. Water levels at Lake Powell, the giant reservoir on the Utah-Arizona border, have dropped to their lowest point in three years, prompting boat ramp closures and raising fears about downstream water supplies and hydroelectric power generation that could affect millions of people across the West. The U.S. National Park Service announced that one of the primary boat launches within the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Utah – the Wahweap Main Launch Ramp – will be closed starting Aug 18. And the Park Service is relocating the Rainbow Bridge floating dock into deeper water. Of greater concern in the long term is how dropping water levels will impact both power generation and water supply: There's a chance that Lake Powell's water level could fall to an elevation that would force the stoppage of power generation at the Glen Canyon Dam, which would affect electricity supply to millions of people in many states. Additionally, another concern is the chance that Lake Powell could reach so-called "dead pool" status by December 2026. That is the level at which a dam can no longer release water downstream. According to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Department of the Interior, if dead pool is reached at Lake Powell, residents of seven western states – Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California – could possibly see power blackouts and water shortages. A long-term water crisis The Colorado River and Lakes Mead and Powell have been suffering because of a multi-decade drought in the West intensified by climate change, rising demand and overuse. The river also serves Mexico and more than two dozen Native American tribes, produces hydropower, and supplies water to farms that grow most of the nation's winter vegetables. A June report from environmental firm AEM showed that Mead and Powell, crucial reservoirs that provide drinking water for 40 million Americans, have "reached alarmingly low levels, holding just one-third of their usual capacity. This shortage poses significant challenges to agriculture, urban water supplies, and industries reliant on consistent water availability." That's up from a low point in 2022, when the reservoirs were 25% full but still far from historic highs of the early 2000s, when they were 95% full. What is the 'dead pool'? At Lake Powell, "dead pool" is the water level at which the lake can no longer release water downstream through Glen Canyon Dam. This happens when the water level falls below the lowest outlets, trapping water within the bottom of the reservoir. It's basically the point where the dam no longer functions as a conduit for the Colorado River's flow. Megadrought blamed on human activities Lake Powell's water woes are playing out against the backdrop of a "megadrought" that's plagued the West for the past two decades. According to a new study released in the journal Nature, greenhouse gas and aerosol emissions from human activity have been driving the prolonged drought in the western United States through a complicated connection with the Pacific Ocean. "For more than two decades, an extreme dry spell has drained the Colorado River, devastated local farms, and intensified wildfires across the American Southwest," according to a statement from Colorado University-Boulder. 'Our results show that the drought and ocean patterns we're seeing today are not just natural fluctuations – they're largely driven by human activity,' said Jeremy Klavans, postdoctoral researcher in CU Boulder's Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and lead author of the study.
Toronto Star
3 days ago
- Climate
- Toronto Star
Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will again get less Colorado River water in 2026
DENVER (AP) — Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will again live with less water from the Colorado River as drought lingers in the West, federal officials announced Friday. The Colorado River is a critical lifeline to seven U.S. states, 30 Native American tribes, and two Mexican states. The cuts are based on projections for levels at federal reservoirs — chief among them Lake Powell and Lake Mead — released every August by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
San Francisco Chronicle
3 days ago
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Arizona, Nevada and Mexico get less Colorado River water for a third year
DENVER (AP) — Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will again live with less water from the Colorado River as drought lingers in the West, federal officials announced Friday. The Colorado River is a critical lifeline to seven U.S. states, 30 Native American tribes, and two Mexican states. The cuts are based on projections for levels at federal reservoirs — chief among them Lake Powell and Lake Mead — released every August by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Arizona will again go without 18% of its total Colorado River allocation, while Mexico loses 5%. The reduction for Nevada — which receives far less water than Arizona, California or Mexico — will stay at 7%. California won't face any cuts because it has senior water rights and is the last to lose in times of shortage. Decades of overuse and the effects of long-term drought worsened by climate change means there's far more demand for water than what actually flows through the river. Low reservoir levels at Lake Mead have triggered mandatory cutbacks every year since 2022, with the deepest cuts in 2023, which hit farmers in Arizona the hardest. Meanwhile, the states are working to reach agreement by next year on new long-term rules to govern the river in dry years. The Trump administration gave a mid-November deadline for states to reach a preliminary agreement, or risk federal intervention. Negotiations have faced delays as states push back against how much water they should each give up. The original 1922 Colorado River Compact was calculated based on an amount of water that doesn't exist in today's climate. That leaves the Upper Basin states of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Utah to share far less water after the required amount is sent to the to the 'Lower Basin' states of Nevada, Arizona and California. Lots of water is also lost to evaporation and leaky infrastructure. Fairly splitting the river's water in the era of climate change has been vexing for years, with all of the major users hesitant to give anything up as they anticipate a drier future. There has to be enough water in the reservoirs to reach the tunnels that usher water downstream, and key infrastructure like the Hoover Dam rely on certain water levels in Lake Mead to generate electricity. Mandatory cuts and emergency water releases are 'reactive," said John Berggren, a regional policy manager at Western Resource Advocates, a nonprofit focused on climate change. 'If we are going to be able to have a sustainable Colorado River and not just be responding to crisis after crisis, we need large amounts of flexibility built into this new set of guidelines," he said. States are considering a so-called natural flow approach to managing the river — where the Lower Basin would receive a certain percentage of the average natural flow from the prior few years. The Lower Basin states have helped stave off deeper cuts by coming up with voluntary conservation plans. 'Absent all of those measures, the river would be in a very bad place,' said J.B. Hamby, chairman of the Colorado River Board of California and a board member for the Imperial Irrigation District, the largest user of the river's water. Still, he knows California, like others, will have to give up more in the ongoing negotiations.
