It’s a crisis nearly 100 years in the making: Seven states — all reliant on a single mighty river as a vital source of water — failed to reach an agreement this week on how best to reduce their use of supplies from the rapidly shrinking Colorado River.
But over the past few years, those reductions haven’t been nearly enough and the reservoir levels haveThe 2019 agreement spells out cuts down to a certain point. If Lake Mead’s level reaches an elevation of 1,025 feet — 22 feet below its current level — and continues declining, the existing rules about what should happen fall to the Law of the River, Larson said.
The six states’ proposal, while not sufficient by itself, is “a better start and solves more problems, and avoids more problems, than California’s proposal,” he said. “The 40 million people, nearly 6,000,000 acres of agriculture, and 30 Indian tribes that rely on the Colorado River require us to be successful in this effort,” the board wrote in its proposal.As the federal government pushes states to reduce usage of dwindling Colorado River water, Imperial Valley farmers fear a “worst-case” scenario.
He noted that California has worked with the other states to adapt and adjust to changing conditions, including putting water back into Lake Mead. Southern California has also made broad efforts in water conservation, instituted severe water use restrictions and made investments in alternative supplies.
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