Historic Water Conservation Measures Coming To The Colorado River Basin

[votesparks]

Federal water managers Friday announced historic water conservation measures for the Colorado River Basin, which has been in the midst of extreme drought.

Experts said the move is a warning that demand is outstripping supply throughout the basin.

“What we’re facing here is a truly historic drought,” said Assistant Secretary of the Interior Anne Castle, speaking at a meeting of Colorado River managers at which the shortage declaration was a major topic of discussion.

Castle said that the last 14 years have been the driest in a century, and among the driest such periods in more than a thousand years of tree ring records.

Friday’s announcement is the result of a historic deal among the seven Colorado River Basin states signed in 2007 that allowed the federal government to hold back water if Lake Powell drops too low.

Under the 2007 deal, the Upper Basin states agreed to share extra water with the downstream states of Arizona, Nevada and California during wet years in exchange for an agreement to hold water back in Lake Powell during dry years like this one.

As downstream supplies dwindle as a result, Nevada and Arizona would face the first shortages, though the first cutbacks would be small. “This is an Arizona and Nevada problem,” said Doug Kenney, a professor at the University of Colorado.

Kenney added that curtailment is a sign that water users across the Colorado River Basin continue to use water faster than nature is providing it.

“Supply and demand are out of balance,” Kenney said, “and it’s not a problem that can be ignored forever.”

Source: abqjournal.com

[Warpy]

1. Yeah, we already know that

I just wonder what measures he's talking about. I'm so used to water restriction here in the Rio Grande Valley that I don't even have to think about it any more. My lawn grass kicked the bucket over a decade ago and I don't miss it in the least. I'm keeping it bare but tidy in the short term.