U.S.: ‘Zero’ chance of Colorado River water shortage in 2018

LAS VEGAS » Heavy winter snows in the Rocky Mountains have rescued the thirsty Western U.S. for another year.

U.S. water managers said Tuesday there will be no water cutbacks in 2018 for millions of residents and farmers served by the Lake Mead reservoir on the Colorado River that lies behind the Hoover Dam.

“The projection indicates there is no chance of shortage in 2018,” said Rose Davis, spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. “Zero.”

January water levels are expected to be 8 feet (2.5 meters) above the point that triggers a drought-shortage declaration on the lake, according to a 24-month projection by the water system management agency.

“That’s good news for everybody in the basin,” said Chuck Cullom, manager of Colorado River programs for the Central Arizona Project, which uses water from the river.

The Arizona system serves a heavily populated region that includes the state’s largest cities: Phoenix, Tucson and Mesa. The project would be among the first hit by cutbacks in the event of a shortage, although officials say farmers would be affected before cities.

The report is a turnabout from a year ago, when the Bureau of Reclamation projected a 50-50 chance the lake would fall just below the shortage point of 1,075 feet (330 meters) above sea level.

Under interstate agreements governing the river’s use, a shortage declaration would force officials to cut some water to Arizona and Nevada. No official shortage has ever occurred.

Overall, the river serves more than 40 million people in cities, farms and tribes in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Mexico also gets a share.

Conservation and waterbanking programs involving Mexico, California, Arizona and Nevada were another big reason the largest constructed reservoir in the U.S. will not fall below the drought shortage point.