IID responds to six-state consensus on Colorado River
IMPERIAL COUNTY – Responding to an Associated Press (AP) article titled “California lone holdout in consensus for Colorado River cuts,” Imperial Irrigation District Division 2 Director and Chairman of the Colorado River Board of Directors J.B. Hamby said the six-state consensus is inconsistent with the “Law of the River.”
The AP article appeared in the Tuesday, January 31 edition of the Imperial Valley Press, where the article accused California of not joining a plan created by the other six Colorado Basin States to see more than 2-million-acre feet of water cut from most the lower basin.
In an email on Tuesday, January 31, Hamby responded that the six-state proposal was developed without input from California, and does not address the concerns of the state of California or Imperial County, who controls the largest portion of water from the Colorado River.
“All basin states agree that water use reductions are necessary to maintain our future water supply – the question is how we implement them,” Hamby said. “At this time, the modeling proposal submitted by the six other basin states is inconsistent with the Law of the River and does not form a seven-state consensus approach.”
According to the AP article, the Colorado River serves more than 40 million people in seven states, including California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.
The article also states that the Colorado River also serves two states in Mexico and supports a $5 billion-a-year agricultural industry.
The article fails to mention that nearly half comes from Imperial County alone at $2.3 billion, according to the Imperial County 2021 Agricultural Crop and Livestock Report.
In an interview with IID Government Affairs and Communications Officer Antonio Ortega, Ortega said that cutting water for Imperial County could not only impact our local economy, which is heavily agricultural-based, but also create national food supply issues.
This claim is supported by the University of California’s Agriculture and Natural Resources Department, who estimates that Imperial County produces two-thirds of the United States winter vegetables.
“I think we’ve realized that we are very much all contingent upon having domestic food supplies with rising prices … having domestic food supplies, I think, is not just critical for the nation, but for ensuring that we can control our own supply and demand,” Ortega said.
Ortega was also able to share that an alternative to the six-state proposal will be issued by end of day on January 31, which will take in account these additional concerns as well as respect the Law of the River.
“California remains focused on practical solutions that can be implemented now to protect volumes of water in storage without driving conflict and litigation…,” Hamby said.
“We are hopeful that constructive dialogue and mutual understanding between the basin states and the United States moving forward can only be to the benefit of the Colorado River system and all who rely on it,” he said.