Fear for fish delays conservation plan
Effort to idle water use affects irrigation drains
Southern California’s Imperial Irrigation District, which supplies water to farmers who grow most of the nation’s winter vegetables, planned to start a conservation program in April to scale back what it draws from the Colorado River.
But a tiny, tough fish got in the way.
Now, those plans won’t start until at least June so water and wildlife officials can devise a way to ensure the endangered desert pupfish and other species are protected, said Jamie Asbury, the irrigation district’s general manager. The proposal to pay farmers to temporarily stop watering feed crops such as alfalfa this summer has environmentalists concerned that irrigation drains could dry up, threatening the fish .
“Drains are created for farmers to be able to convey irrigation runoff, and the pupfish decided it was a good place to live,” Asbury said.
Protecting the desert pupfish, listed as endangered since 1986, has been one of many problems facing the Colorado River and the people and species that rely on it.
The 1,450-mile river provides water to 40 million people in seven U.S. states, parts of Mexico and more than two dozen Native American tribes. It long has been overtapped, a problem aggravated by recent years of prolonged drought. The Western states are negotiating a new long-term use plan meant to stabilize the river.
Last year, Arizona, Nevada and California offered to cut back on their use of Colorado River water in exchange for money from the federal government to avoid forced cuts. California, which gets the most water of all the states based on a century-old water rights priority system, agreed to give up 1.6 million acre-feet of water through 2026, with more than half coming from the Imperial Irrigation District.
An acre-foot serves about two to three U.S. households per year.
The Imperial district envisioned a summer idling program in which farmers could turn off water for 60 days for feed crops as yields already are down at that time of year and growing requires much more water. But environmental officials worried that limiting the flow of water through irrigation drains could harm the desert pupfish.
They also raised concerns about the impact on migratory birds that frequent the Salton Sea, Asbury said.
Now the district, the biggest user of Colorado River water with more than 3,000 miles of canals and drains, is in talks with state and federal officials on how it can proceed while setting up a monitoring program to ensure the fish isn’t further threatened, Asbury said.