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Facing the worst drought in the last 1,200 years, the seven Western states that rely on the Colorado River are running short on time to determine a viable path forward before the federal government steps in and makes cuts to water use for them. States have until August 16 to come up with a plan to conserve as much as a third of the river’s flows.
In a congressional hearing in June, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton issued the Biden administration’s ultimatum: Develop a plan to save 2 to 4 million acre-feet of water in 2023 or the federal government will step in. This is the amount officials believe is necessary to keep Lake Powell, a key reservoir along the Arizona-Utah border, from reaching disastrously low levels next year.
Climate change has diminished the river’s flows roughly 20 percent in the past two decades, and scientists predict they will shrink nearly 10 percent more with each additional degree of temperature rise. Despite the dire warnings, states are struggling to agree on a plan for reducing their water use, leaving the Biden administration with the politically perilous choice of stepping in to enforce cuts. The cost of inaction could be catastrophic in the form of loss of hydropower capacity, highly productive farmland drying up, significant species loss, and a Grand Canyon with no water flowing through it.
John Fleck, a water policy professor at the University of New Mexico said, “I don’t see anything that’s not a risk. It’s all bad options at this point.”
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We can actually get a big bang for our buck by addressing climate solutions that also address the nature crisis. Natural climate solutions are not a substitute for decarbonizing our economy and energy sector. But it’s a complement so that we can hit more emissions reductions than we could otherwise.”
