Effective January 1st, Arizona, Nevada And Mexico All Face Cuts In Colorado River Water Deliveries

[hatrack]

Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will be required to take less water from the Colorado River for the first time next year under a set of agreements that aim to keep enough water in Lake Mead to reduce the risk of a crash. The federal Bureau of Reclamation activated the mandatory reductions in water deliveries on Thursday when it released projections showing that as of Jan. 1, the level of Lake Mead will sit just below a threshold that triggers the cuts.

Arizona and Nevada agreed to leave a portion of their water allotments in the reservoir under a landmark deal with California called the Lower Basin Drought Contingency Plan, which the states’ representatives signed at Hoover Dam in May.

California agreed to contribute water at a lower trigger point if the reservoir continues to fall. And Mexico agreed under a separate accord to start contributing to help prop up Lake Mead, which is now 39 percent full.

The Colorado River’s reservoirs have dropped dramatically since 2000 during one of the most extreme droughts in centuries. Farms and cities across the Southwest have long been taking more from the river than what flows into it, and climate change is adding to the strains by pushing up temperatures.

EDIT

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2019/08/15/colorado-river-water-drought-arizona-nevada-mexico-first-ever-reductions/2021147001/

[OnlinePoker]

1. Last winter was a good water year for the upper Colorado

Lake Powell was up nearly 60 feet from low to high and is now over 20 feet above the same date last year. They have already released more water than required for the full water year (which ends at the end of September) and are continuing with large releases. Lake Mead, on the other hand, only went up 12 feet from low to high and is only sitting 5 feet above a year ago. At that rate, it would need 27 years to get back to full pool from where it is now (136 feet below full).

http://lakemead.water-data.com/

[hatrack]

2. When first built, Mead's capacity was 32 million acre-feet- now it's 25.8 million

When first built, Powell's capacity was 27 million acre-feet- now it's 24.3 million.

Even if both reservoirs were to fill, which as about as likely as me dating Scarlett Johansson, they'd still be 10 maf short of their combined planned capacity.

Climate, time and (above all) sedimentation are already doing a number on many of our assumptions about the southwest, and it's not going to get any better.