Politics and threatened litigation are replacing what is left of the water in the Colorado River as the seven basin states that rely on the West's largest river try to reach an agreement to cut flows.
SALT LAKE CITY — Politics and threatened litigation are replacing what is left of the water in the Colorado River as the seven basin states that rely on the West's largest river try to reach an agreement toThe directive to find some sort of definitive plan for dam operations by reducing flows was issued by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which is tasked with making decisions to prop up the river that has been decimated by drought and over diversion through the years.
It is more than a heavy lift for a river that was divided up under a compact forged more than 100 years ago in a remote location in New Mexico and subsequently shaped by regulations, court decisions and compacts that all coalesced into what is now known as the "Law of the River." The institute has long advocated for the draining of Lake Powell, the nation's second largest reservoir behind Lake Mead.
Additional combined reductions of 200,000 acre-feet to Arizona, California and Nevada at Lake Mead elevation 1,020 feet and below, as well as additional reductions necessary to protect Lake Mead elevation of 1,000 feet."The includes the significant and necessary step of assessing evaporation and transit losses against Lower Basin uses. The Lower Basin actions operate in coordination with additional actions in the Upper Basin.
JB Hamby, chairman of the Colorado River Board of California and a board member of the Imperial Irrigation District, indicated California may file a lawsuit if the federal government attempts to count for evaporative losses. Those are estimated at 1.5 million acre-feet on the river system.
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