Basin states must use at least 25% less water by 2030

Legislative sessions have convened in each of the seven states that make up the Colorado River Basin. Little on their respective agendas is more important than the crises on the Colorado River, the Rio Grande in New Mexico and the major rivers that feed into Great Salt Lake in Utah.

Without swift, meaningful and sustained action these rivers and the Great Salt Lake are headed for catastrophe.

Some might use the excuse of precipitation from recent storms as a reason for inaction. But it would take years of these storms to offset 22 years of drought, overuse of water from our rivers and an increasingly warmer and drier climate.

We must act now. This crisis has been years in the making but we don’t have years to solve it.

River and climate scientists have produced mounds of definitive data over the past decade that clearly demonstrate that without action we are headed for disaster. We have used more water than the rivers can provide. Data shows there is 20% less water in Western rivers than two decades ago.

Yet until the past few months, federal officials, state lawmakers, governors and attorneys general, river managers, agricultural interests, developers and major water users have done far too little to address the warning signs.

Instead of addressing what was a predicted and slowly unfolding crisis, they have delayed action and blamed one another. Some states have threatened lawsuits to get every drop of water “they are entitled” to.

Some have talked of building more dams and diversions — while reservoirs are drying up — as if doing what got us into this situation is the answer.

Inaction risks economic devastation for communities and wildlife that rely on rivers for water to support everyday needs. It risks toxic air pollution from dried lakebeds.

In short, the failure to act risks our very way of life.

After a federal call to action to reduce water use by 20% to 40% across the Colorado River Basin last year, officials from some of the Colorado River Basin states, water providers, and agricultural interests embraced the prospect that billions of dollars from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act can solve the crisis.

Yet they have failed twice to develop plans at the scale necessary to solve the crisis.

So, we sit in a crisis of our own making. And if we continue down the same path of the last decade our way of life in the West will be changed forever. What will the millions of people who depend on the Colorado River for drinking water, farms, and electricity do when the river doesn’t flow?

As state legislators gather, they have an opportunity to turn away from the “we will fight for every drop” posture.

Elected officials and those involved in water policy must seek collaborative solutions that advance our mutual interests across the region.

In these 2023 legislative sessions, the states of the Colorado River Basin must develop plans collectively to reduce how much water we use by 25% or more by 2030.

Such plans would drive proven but underutilized strategies to use less water and begin to stabilize our river systems. They would also provide a path to sustainable rivers and resilient communities. To help solve the crisis and to achieve the 25% reduction, policy should include all water users and each sector of our communities.

We must:

• Recognize historic tribal rights to water from the Colorado River and Western rivers and engage tribes in true partnership and collaborative decision-making.

• Implement policies that allow counties and municipalities to dramatically cut water use in our homes and businesses and utilize responsible landscaping. Our communities also need to adopt aggressive water reuse goals.

• Address agricultural water use and dramatically cut demand over time while ensuring farms and ranches thrive. Farmers and ranchers should take advantage of substantial new federal resources to improve efficiencies by using less water to grow our food. We should change state laws to incentivize farmers and ranchers to keep more water in rivers, replace the most water-intensive crops and permanently retire the least productive land. And we must fairly compensate farmers and ranchers for acting.

Will we see more bickering and legal wrangling from Western leaders? Or will we see collaboration to pass policies that get serious about the crisis?

We challenge all elected leaders in the seven Colorado River Basin states, water providers and utilities, cities, counties, agricultural interests, and all decisionmakers to step up and make 2023 the year we finally take meaningful action to solve this crisis.

What we do now will decide how we, our children and our grandchildren are able to live in the West.