Split between Upper and Lower Colorado States on how to proceed with water reallocation
The opening rounds of negotiations between water users on the Colorado are off to an inauspicious start. States are in beginning stages or planning for the expiration of the 1922 Colorado River Compact. The Compact is a somewhat archaic legal document that is fundamentally flawed in that it relied upon unrealistic water data in making the water allocation between the States. In particular, the Compact relies on data from a small but abnormally wet time period that estimated the river’s annual average natural flow in the Upper Basin to be about 18 million acre-feet. Data from recent decades shows it’s becoming uncommon for the river to meet the benchmark used to craft the Compact. Estimated annual flows at Lee Ferry, a key dividing point between the Colorado River’s Upper and Lower Basins, have surpassed 18 million acre-feet just four times since 1991, while the river’s average flow since 2000 has been 12.3 million acre-feet. In the long run, the States are going to have to restrict water access to some users - there simply will not be enough to go around. Upper river States argue that accounting for evaporation and other losses could provide a reasonable starting point in providing a new accurate accounting of available water. This is a decent start, but in reality the parties are going to have to assume that water cuts are in the short-term and long-term forecast for major cities such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix, as well as farmers from Colorado’s West Slope to growers in California’s Imperial Valley near the Mexican border. It will be interesting to see what interest drive this debate going forward as no politician wants to be seen as the one who gave away the State’s water rights.
Federal pressure mounts as states attempt to break Colorado River standoff
Times are a changing
There is a big fight coming! The Colorado River Compact, the agreement that, for the past 100 years, governs the allocation and use of River water thought out seven Southwestern States is set to expire in 2026. The demands and priorities of the upper and lower river basins could not be more different and at the battle lines are becoming clear. I am setting up this page to provide singular place to access information about the Colorado River watershed and the changes thereto. My hope is provide (1) links and commentary regarding laws and other forces which will bear directly on the upcoming Compact negotiations, (2) provide rainfall/drought/anecdotal data that details the current state of the River, and (3) give a summary of past successes and failures of Western water management as baseline for comparison.