Published: Apr. At which point, if private entities like WAM had stores of water in Lake Powell ready to sell, they would suddenly be worth quite a bit more. WAM and other investors could theoretically create their own reservoir accounts and let the water sit until its value was maximized. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers. Demand management, as the policy is known, is an attempt to solve the so-called wrong places problem and free up water from agriculture and reroute it to urban uses and conservation. The other half is mile after mile of green fields lined by irrigation canals. Rechanneling water from rural areas to thirsty growth spots like Queen Creek has long been handled by municipal water managers and utilities, but investors adept at sniffing out undervalued assets sense an opportunity. The Radio Bookclub is a collaboration between KGNU and the Boulder Bookstore and is broadcast on the 4th Thursday of every month at 9am. Investor interest in the river could redefine century-old rules for who controls one of the most valuable economic resources in the United States. The high-tech market there services Denver and other cities, fueling development in some of the fastest-growing housing markets in the country. They inherited the legal right to use that water, but they're now under pressure to give up some of it. Hay, corn, wheat, sorghum, and millet are the top five. Some fear that less water, and less farming, means fewer jobs and economic decline. 'The brink of disaster': 2023 is a critical year for the Colorado River Interior Department has said it will engage with tribes in the basin as parties hammer out some management details of the compact that are set to expire after 2026. During the past two decades of drought, and particularly in recent years, the rivers flow has declined, but states continue to consume more than the river provides, based on a framework established a century ago. Steve Benson returned to the family business, Benson Farms in Brawley, Calif., after a career in engineering and real estate. One draft plan that's circulating among irrigation districts proposes annual payments of $1,500 per acre almost $1.4 billion in total in exchange for cutting water use by roughly 20 percent on almost a million acres of farmland. Use less waterevery drop counts! The effect has been dramatic on a vast river basin where the math never added up: The amount of water it receives doesn't meet the amount that is promised. The water fight over the shrinking Colorado River - BBC News Exclusive news, data and analytics for financial market professionals, Reporting by Liliana Salgado and Temis Tormo; Writing by Clarence Fernandez; Who are the top 5 consumers of the water of the Colorado River? The upper basin includes Utah, Wyoming,. Much of the money goes to pay for projects that conserve water. But they will also be looking at rebalancing water levels in Lake Powell and Lake Mead, two federally owned reservoirs that hold water to use in case of extreme drought. The platform is designed to engage citizens and government leaders in a discussion about what needs improvement across the country. Mr. Imperial Valley farmers like Andrew Leimgruber, for their part, argue that they have a legal right to all of this water. The way the markets were set up left them open to being gamed.. Many experts see its decision to sit out the agreement as fuelling the chances that the water fight will end up in the nation's highest courts. Sprinklers deliver vital Colorado River water to a field of celery in California's Imperial Valley. James Eklund, legal counsel for Water Asset Management, favors a market-driven approach to water distribution in the West. At the edges of Lake Mead, the Nation's largest reservoir, a "bathtub ring" of mineral deposits approximately 100 ft. high shows the drop in water level after years of drought along the Colorado River. Otherwise, the state has to invest in the whole thing and pay the opportunity cost of just having that water sitting there.. All rights reserved. The market in the Colorado-Big Thompson Project is also nimble and responsive. Obviously, its not going swimmingly, said Jeffrey Kightlinger, the former general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, a water provider that is a major player in the talks. The way this priority system works, residents of Phoenix would lose water before vegetable farmers in Yuma. So it's been a high market. Since leaving government, Mr. Eklund has become WAMs legal counsel and public face. But on top of that, theres a problem with the rules, Cohen said. Thanks to the Colorado River, which meanders through town, Cibola is a verdant oasis that chatters at dusk with swooping birds. In the last few years, Colorado has been debating a water policy approach that has further piqued the interest of private investors: paying farmers not to use the river at all. They also know that this crisis is so severe that famers in the Imperial Valley will have to cut back, too. That is about 1 million acre-feet less than the three states are entitled to use under a legal compact that divides the Colorado River's waters. Sandbar at river mile 45 before (LEFT) & after (RIGHT), the 2012 high-flow. I have seen time and again the wisdom of using incentives that attract private sector investment and innovation, Mr. Eklund said. From 2005 to 2010, California consistently used more water than any other state, followed by Texas, Idaho, Florida, and Colorado. Increasingly, the river is threatened by drought, with flows down 20 percent over the last 20 years. Mr. The ongoing drought is a stark reminder that water conservation is not just smart planning but an absolute necessity to save the life of the Colorado River, Amelia Flores, chairwoman of Colorado River Indian Tribes, said ahead of the event. The system worked as long as there was enough to go around, said Mr. Libecap, who recently advised the State of Colorado on its growing water problems. But if you know one tribe, you only know one tribe. Farmers also could reduce the amount of land planted in crops, especially alfalfa and grasses, which get baled into hay to feed cattle or horses. Water curtailment has long loomed over the Southwest. The past two years have also seen healthy winter snow accumulation in the Rockies only to have runoff levels into Lake Powell that were a fraction of normal, as terrain dried out by the warming climate absorbed more of the water before it can reach the reservoir. Key Colorado River reservoirs unlikely to refill in our lifetimes - Los Its quite possible that there just wont be as much San Juan-Chama water available in the future because of drought and climate change.. Californias cuts dont kick in until later essentially a gamble on good hydrology once again helping us avoid conflict by letting us use more water in the short term, Fleck wrote on his blog. Arizona announces $233 million in Colorado River water conservation Hernandez says that the crisis on the Colorado River provides a time for the predominantly white people who've claimed that water and the wealth and power that came with it to share more of it. We let anyone come play.. From April through September, tours commence at 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., with . Sprinklers deliver vital Colorado River water to a field of celery in California's Imperial Valley. The Central Arizona Project, a 336-mile-long water delivery system, brings water from the Colorado River to Arizona's . Reclamation would perhaps not have been able to fulfill its contractual obligations to folks like the Navajo Nation and Jicarilla Apache and others that depend on water out of Navajo.. Nor is it official policy yet. Light shines off the water flowing in a section of the Central Arizona Project on Oct . His great-grandfather came to the valley from Sweden in the 1920s. But theres this public perception that, Look, theres flooding. In 1922, a landmark agreement called the Colorado River Compact divided the river among two groups of states: the upper basin and the lower basin. The most valuable of these rights were grandfathered in decades before the population explosion in desert cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas, and privilege water access to small, often family-owned farms in stressed communities. The event theme, A New Century for the Colorado River Compact, marks 100 years since a 1922 interstate agreement divvied water shares among interests in the seven states now home to 40 million people and millions of farmed acres. Best States is an interactive platform developed by U.S. News for ranking the 50 U.S. states, alongside news analysis and daily reporting. Felt said. Water Law in Colorado These farms use more Colorado River water than 2 states combined - NPR
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