Official tells IID protecting Lake Mead level is a priority
EL CENTRO — Recent hydrology models are predicting an increasing likelihood that Lake Mead will face a shortage by 2020. Due to the increasing urgency to act, the federal government is now asking the Imperial Irrigation District to be part of the solution.
During Tuesday’s IID Board of Directors meeting, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman provided the board and the public with an analysis indicating the Colorado River System is in peril. She said urgent action is needed to prevent severe consequences.
Burman said individual conservation will not be enough to stabilize the Colorado River system and additional action will be needed from all water agencies.
To conclude her presentation, Burman asked the agency to come back to the table to reconvene negotiations for a drought contingency plan and to finalize a plan by the end of the year.
“What we need is action. This administration places Colorado River as a high priority. Maintaining the system at the Colorado River is a high priority. The Secretary (of the Interior Ryan Zinke) takes it very seriously, and as commissioner, I’m here to tell you we absolutely need more action in the Colorado River,” Burman said. “The risk we are facing right now is too great.”
Prior to the request made by her, Terrance Fulp, Bureau of Reclamation lower Colorado regional director, presented some of the latest projections to the board. One striking model based on the hydrology between the years 200108 showed the water elevation at Lake Mead could drop to approximately 975 feet within the next decade.
Current elevation in Lake Mead is 1,082 feet as of last week, just above the first shortage trigger point of 1,075 feet when Arizona and Nevada would be forced to cut some of its water deliveries. Although the IID holds senior rights, its shortage trigger point is 1025 feet, a number which is looking much more plausible within the next 10 years.
“We hope it all turns around, but what we really want to do is have contingencies in place,” Fulp said.
For the last few years, water users along the lower basin of the Colorado Basin had engaged in negotiations over a drought contingency plan, but those negotiations came to a standstill.
Current projections from the bureau estimate the river has a 52 percent chance to reach its first trigger point in 2020. That increases to 64 percent by 2021, and 68 percent by 2022.
Lake Mead has never dropped low enough to trigger cutbacks, but a nearly two-decade drought and growing demand make a shortage more and more likely.
“We face an overwhelming risk on the system and the time for action is now,” Burman said. “It’s time for us in the Colorado River lower basin to step forward and to complete a DCP to protect the Colorado River, Lake Mead and Lake Powell. We need to take charge of our own future.”
During the time the negotiations were taking place, IID wanted the state of California to take action on the Salton Sea and have an option to store water on Lake Mead, which could be withdrawn regardless of elevation level at the lake.
IID Board President Jim Hanks said during the meeting on Tuesday, the agency would need three components to come to the table. These include the previously mentioned Lake Mead storage and action on the Salton Sea, plus giving farmers flexibility on finding solutions to conserve additional water.
Burman said the IID would need to convince other water users in the lower basin but is an issue that can be discussed during the negotiations.
“There is room within a new agreement for the lower basin to allow for some flexibility and the idea of storage,” she said. “We have a more flexible ability to keep water in Lake Mead and be able to withdraw it under a much more flexible system than we see today.”
Local farmer Larry Cox said he was concerned with the possibility of moving water from the fields to storage in Lake Mead, as he would prefer to see conserved water be used to diversify the local economy with more industry in the Imperial Valley, but the main concern for him is for the federal government to get more involved in the restoration of the Salton Sea before any DCP is agreed to.
“Until that is adequately addressed, we are going to be reluctant or opposed to moving water out of the Valley,” Cox said. “Bureau of Reclamation should work with the state to come up with a viable and funded solution for the Salton Sea.”