California refuses to sign onto Colorado River states' proposal for usage reductions

Jan. 31—Colorado and five other Colorado River states have reached a consensus on how they plan to reduce their water usage, the states announced Monday.

California, notably, is not a part of the consensus.

The proposal, which the states will submit to the federal Bureau of Reclamation, suggests changes to the criteria for Colorado River usage reductions, including operating guidelines for Glen Canyon Dam at Lake Powell and Hoover Dam at Lake Mead.

The states had until Tuesday to establish major cutbacks in water use.

Last year, when the river was confirmed to be at its driest period in 1,200 years, the federal government asked the seven river states to reduce water use by 2 million to 4 million acre-feet. The discussions were hindered by competing priorities and disagreements over the role each state should take in reduction efforts and a consensus was not met.

The cuts are needed because lakes Powell and Mead are sources of water and power for millions of people throughout the West, including Colorado Springs and other Front Range cities. Both reservoirs are on the Colorado River and are approaching critical levels. The Colorado River has been listed as the most endangered river in the U.S., according to a report from the nonprofit organization American Rivers.

The proposal was signed by Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — but not California, drawing criticism from U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., who called the state's decision "deeply disappointing."

"We are facing the most serious drought in 1,200 years," Bennet said in a statement. "California must step forward and be part of the solution. For too long, the other six states, and particularly the Upper Basin, have carried the burden of this historic drought."

One of the largest changes in the proposal is a requirement for the Lower Basin states to account for 1.5 million acre-feet in system losses, such as evaporation and seepage.

JB Hamby, chairman of the Colorado River Board of California, pushed back on the proposal submitted by the other states, saying it is "inconsistent with the Law of the River."

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"California remains focused on practical solutions that can be implemented now to protect volumes of water in storage without driving conflict and litigation," he said in a statement.

He called his state's voluntary commitment to conserve 400,000 acre-feet of water a year through 2026 the only concrete proposal submitted to date.

Upper Basin states, such as Colorado, have argued in the past they consistently take less than their share of water because of drought conditions and requirements to send millions of acre-feet of water downstream to Lower Basin states, including California.

The Colorado River supplies water to 40 million people in two countries, seven states, 29 federally recognized Indian tribes and 4 million acres of farmland. But its ability to provide that water faces a serious challenge following 22 years of drought and a drier climate that reduced its annual flow from 16.4 million acre-feet (MAF) to around 14.5 MAF on average since 2000.

Compacts and agreements among the states govern how water from the river is allocated. 2007 interim guidelines, for example, set up a series of tiers for when water levels at Lake Mead drop to critically low levels. Those tiers would dictate cuts in water allocations to the lower basin states.

In 2019, another round of agreements, known as the Drought Contingency Plan, dictated just how water would be cut from the lower basin states should the shortages at Mead reach those levels.

California, for now, has so far been spared cuts under the 2007 interim guidelines and the 2019 drought plan. But under a Tier 3 shortage, the state would take less water from the guideline's Intentionally Created Surplus (ICS) Program, which creates water credits in Mead through conservation measures and that could be reclaimed at some point in the future.

California is also part of a lower basin plan, known as 500+, signed in December, that would keep about a million acre-feet of water in Mead for the next two years through conservation measures and at a cost of $200 million, split between the states and the federal government.

The interim guidelines are in effect until Dec. 31, 2025, and are now the subject of negotiations among the upper and lower basin states.

The proposal by the six states calls for reduced releases from lakes Powell and Mead, and additional combined reductions of 250,000 acre-feet and 200,000 acre-feet at two Lake Mead elevations to Arizona, California and Nevada.

The federal government is expected to evaluate and incorporate the proposal into a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement to update operation guidelines originally established more than 15 years ago.

The river originates high in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park and collects water from major tributaries that then flows through a seven-state river system. The basin is split into two regions: The upper basin includes Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah; the lower basin includes Arizona, Nevada and California.

"We recognize that over the past twenty-plus years there is simply far less water flowing into the Colorado River system than the amount that leaves it, and that we have effectively run out of storage to deplete," the states say in their proposal, pledging continued collaboration with the federal government, water users, basin tribes and others.

"I am encouraged today that six states came to an agreement on potential mechanisms to better manage the critical reservoirs on the Colorado River," Colorado Gov. Jared Polis wrote in a statement. "Increased drought, climate change, and overuse has led to less water in our reservoirs. More must be done to protect the system, and although we did not cause this crisis, I am proud that Colorado is part of the solution."

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