More water cuts announced as Colorado River reaches dangerous low

Due to destocking of water from the drought-ravaged Colorado River, federal government on Tuesday announced a new round of cuts in in amount two states can take from the river. But for now government has stopped of authorizing major cuts that officials say will be needed next year to protect river infrastructure.

Officials with Department of the Interior and Bureau of Reclamation said there are two levels in Colorado main reservoirs, Lake Mead and Powell, remained dangerously low after more than two decades of drought in southwest made worse from climate change. lake Mead, behind The Hoover Dam on the Arizona-Nevada border is now about 175 feet lower than it was. in 2000 when the Southwest Megadrought began.

This level causes consensual cuts in sums that are two of the Lower Basin states, Arizona and Nevada, and Mexico can draw water from Lake Mead. Another Lower Basin state, California, is not currently affected, as are the states of the Upper Basin of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico. About 40 million people depend on Colorado for at least some of their water and it irrigates more over 5.5 million acres of land.

In June the bureau of Land Reclamation Commissioner Camilla Kalimlim Tuton called on seven states agreed and recommended steeper cuts to keep operations safe. Reclamation engineers were especially concerned this is Lake Powell, behind Glen Canyon Dam near the Utah-Arizona border drop so low that it could no longer generate hydropower, and ability of dam to pass any water downstream can be at the level risk.

Since then, negotiations between states have progressed slowly, with a little of finger pointing that marked negotiations over Western water for a lot of of in past century.

On Tuesday, Ms Touton said that while “significant progress” was made in negotiations, “they are not complete”.

“States have not collectively identified and taken action of a significant amount that would stabilize system,” she said.

Miss Tuton warned in June, what if the states can’t agree, government will impose cuts on your own. But there were no unilateral immediate cuts. announced Tuesday.

But few doubt that more cuts are coming, of up up to 4 million acre feet of water, amount approximately equal to one-third of river current annual stock.

The cuts that were announced Tuesday relatively small in in addition to the cuts that were triggered last year when government announced first-permanent shortage of water in Lake Mead.

FROM new cuts, Arizona will have to reduce its consumption in Colorado is nearly 600,000 acre feet, or 21 percent of its annual distribution. Nevada total cuts are now 25,000 acre feet, or about 8 percent of its selection. Mexico abbreviations total 104,000 acre feet, 7 percent of reserve allocated to him.

In Arizona, cuts hit farmers heavily in central part of state. And when it comes to the cooler acronyms called for Ms Tuton, agriculture is also expected to be hit the hardest. Agriculture uses about three-quarters of delivery from Colorado.

Jennifer Pitt, Colorado River program director at the National Audubon Society, said he was under a lot of pressure on all interested parties up with plan for sharp cuts. “Water just not there,” she said. “It’s stone cold reality and no amount of politicking can change that.”

Climate change has exacerbated drought and made it is less likely that the line of wet years could occur it will end. But the increase in water intakes as regions population It has climbed and agriculture grew also played role.

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