A buoy is shown by the old Boulder Harbor boat launch at Lake Mead Saturday, August 6, 2022.
Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2022 | 2 a.m.
Nevada will lose 8% of its water allotment from the Colorado River next year amid continuing drought, but people here shouldn’t notice the cut because of Southern Nevadans’ conservation efforts.
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced steps Tuesday to protect the long-term sustainability of the Colorado River system that provides water to Nevada and other Western states.
The effect of Nevada’s reductions will be mitigated because Southern Nevada recycles indoor water and doesn’t use its full annual allocation from Lake Mead.
“At least in the near term, we’re in a relatively enviable position,” said John Entsminger, Southern Nevada Water Authority general manager. “However, as climate change and aridification continues to impact water availability in the Colorado River Basin, we must be prepared as a community to intensify our conservation efforts to protect our economy and our standard of living in Southern Nevada.”
The drought crisis is driven by climate change, including extreme heat and low precipitation, Deputy Secretary of the Interior Tommy Beaudreau said, adding that 93% of the West was experiencing drought and dry conditions.
“We will use every available resource and tool at the federal level to protect the Colorado River system,” Beaudreau said. “The department is dedicated to making sound decisions based on the best available science.”
The Colorado River supplies water to 40 million people in seven U.S. states and Mexico and is vitally important to an agricultural industry valued at $15 billion a year.
A federal study projects the Jan. 1 operating elevation of Lake Mead at 1,047.61 feet. Water allocations to states depend on the water level at Lake Mead, which is about a quarter full.
Besides reductions in Nevada, Arizona will see a 21% reduction in its water allocation and Mexico will take a 7% cut.
In addition, Nevada, Arizona, California, New Mexico and Utah were asked to consider further conservation measures.
“We are taking steps for the 40 million people who rely on the Colorado river for their lives and livelihood,” said Camille Calimlim Touton, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the Hoover Dam at Lake Mead.
The West is in the midst of a two-decade drought that is leaving less water flowing through the Colorado River and has depleted the reservoirs that store it. Lake Powell and Lake Mead are operating at 28% capacity, Touton said.
Scorching temperatures and less melting snow in the spring have reduced the amount of water flowing from the Rocky Mountains, where the river originates before it snakes 1,450 miles southwest and into the Gulf of California.
Already, extraordinary steps have been taken this year to keep water in Lake Powell, the other large Colorado River reservoir, which sits upstream of Lake Mead and straddles the Arizona-Utah border.
Water from Lake Powell runs through Glen Canyon Dam, which produces enough electricity to power up to 1.5 million homes each year.
After water levels at Lake Powell reached levels low enough to threaten hydropower production, federal officials said they would hold back an additional 480,000 acre-feet of water, or about 156 billion gallons, to ensure the dam could still produce energy. That water would normally course to Lake Mead.
Touton asked officials from the seven Colorado River Basin states in June to work toward an agreement to trim their water use by at least 15%.
Representatives from the states met in Denver last week for last-minute negotiations, but the proposals fell short of what was demanded. That led to Tuesday’s announcement, which Touton said was not only to provide sustainability for next year but for the future.
“The system is reaching a tipping point and without action, we can’t protect it,” she said.
In a letter to Department of the Interior and Bureau of Reclamation officials, Entsminger called the situation “a slow-moving train wreck.”
He said two months of negotiations “produced exactly nothing in terms of meaningful collective action to help forestall the looming crisis.”
Entsminger noted steps Nevada had taken to conserve water and a plan to reduce water consumption from 110 gallons a day per person to 86 gallons by 2035.
But the “bulk of the responsibility to reduce use falls upon water users downstream of Hoover Dam, because that is where the bulk of the water is used,” he said.
He recommended a number of steps to cut water use, including eliminating wasteful practices, increasing payments for people to remove turf, and investing in recycling and desalination programs, among others.
“Writing the next chapter will require each and every water manager to convince their elected officials and governing bodies that sacrificing something is the only way to save everything,” he said.
Kyle Roerink, executive director of the conservation group Great Basin Water Network, accused Upper Basin states — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — of ignoring the call to take cuts.
“Here’s the question of our time: How much longer will a few entrenched interests in the Upper Basin hold the federal government hostage? While the SNWA shows leadership in the Lower Basin, so many others are demonstrating cowardice,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
