Federal Government Plans to Cut Water Supply From Colorado to Both Powell and Mead for the First Time

The federal government intends to halt the deliveries of water from the Colorado River's Powell and Mead for the first time.

Although the federal government has the authority to unilaterally stop receiving water from Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the two main reservoirs on the Colorado River, this has never happened. The seven states that rely on the river and the federal government have always bargained over previous cuts.

The Formal Warning

However, the Department of the Interior, the federal organization in charge of overseeing the management of water in the Colorado River basin, declared on Friday that it would examine the possibility of altering the regulations governing the management of Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which are situated in southern Nevada and southern Utah, respectively.

This would open the door for the department to enforce significant cuts on Arizona, California, Nevada, and Mexico, which get water under a 1944 treaty, among other major water users.

In its letter on Friday, the Interior Department stated that before altering the rules to enact new cuts on the states, it would initiate an environmental review. Before the federal government enforces its voluntary reductions, this will give states yet another opportunity to propose their own.

The result of all this, according to John Fleck, the University of New Mexico's professor of water policy, is that historic water reductions are virtually assured for the coming year.

Inadequate Consumption Reduction Efforts

The federal government as well as the seven basin states-California, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Arizona-have been in bitter negotiations for months before the release of the new review.

State water use reduction orders were issued by the Bureau of Reclamation of the Interior Department earlier this year as water levels throughout both Lake Powell and Lake Mead reached historic lows. From 2 to 4 million acre-feet, or about a third of all water used on the river, were the total reductions the Bureau sought.

The states have fallen far short of achieving that objective. Major water users in California, which is by far the most water-hungry of the seven states, decided last month to reduce water usage by about 400,000 acre-feet. This decision will have significant effects on both the Los Angeles metropolitan area and the agriculturally-intensive Imperial Valley.

To comply with federal drought restrictions that were already in place, Arizona has decreased its use of Colorado over the past two years. The four states that make up the "upper basin" of the river-Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming-have not yet made any official announcements regarding how they intend to reduce their water usage.

According to Tommy Beaudreau, the deputy secretary of the department, the Department currently lacks the alternatives or rather measures that have been thoroughly examined that might be necessary to deal with such projected conditions. The conditions pose hazards to the river system, he continued, so an immediate solution must be developed.

The Firm Hand

The current shortage guidelines are the result of years of negotiations between the Interior Department and the states. Although technically, the federal government has the authority to change the volume of water it discharges from the reservoirs without prior consultation with the states, it has never had to put that authority to the test.

The Interior Department's announcement paves the way for the federal government's impending threat to unilaterally alter that agreement. If the government does change its regulations, it may establish a new cutoff point for when to hold releasing water from Lakes Mead and Powell, imposing earlier and more severe cuts than those that have been experienced thus far by the states.

If a state water consumer files suit over the new reductions, the review process gives the feds a stronger legal position, Grist reports.

Colorado River

The Colorado River, which flows through seven US states and two other countries and is 1,450 miles long, is the sixth-longest river in the country, according to data from American Rivers.

260,000 square miles, or about 8% of the US continent, make up the Colorado basin.

According to AZ Central, Lake Mead and Lake Powell function "conjunctively," meaning that each lake's activities have an impact on the other. The system is set up to fill Lake Powell with runoff from the Upper Basin, and Lake Mead with discharges from Lake Powell and intermediate flows below Glen Canyon Dam.