On the implications of total Mead-Powell storage reaching record lows:
The big questions that are implied by where we’re at are ones that absolutely need to be addressed, but they’re not going to be addressed now. I mean, we can’t even have functional conversations about how to reduce consumptive use.
– Jack Schmidt, quoted by Brooke Larsen, Salt Lake Tribune
Is it possible to have a perfect storm, in the form of a drought? Not only do we have unfavorable hydrologic conditions, but a federal administration focused on frivolous litigation, just when we need to avoid re-litigating Colorado River issues at the Supreme Court. Where is Federal leadership when you need it the most?
Doug, spot on about passing this on to the Supreme Court. The sticky part is anyway you address it – someone’s not gonna be happy and it will be political in nature. I remember some years back when Reclamation had to restrict water at a water district in the Klamath Falls area due to species protection. Farmers were up in arms. The common theme being, “We’re going to lose the family farm and we’ve been farming here for generations.” Remember the backlash? It got political real quick. Imagine you being the local water managers having to deal with your neighbors? Yeah, I know that you got to see how dicey it was a few years ago. I can just imagine how stressful it is in Water Ops now.
Concerning the States and negotiations between them. My best explanation would be that it is much like a Western movie shoot-em-up in the closing scene. California comes out on top and Arizona gets killed in the end.
The other reference would be to the novel, “The Water Knife”. I remember several members of the War Ops staff discussing it over lunch.
My best to the family. Stay thirsty my friend…
Funny….I just had my annual exams, and all the dentist and doctor could talk about was “are we running out of water?”. The conversation usually begins with what do you do for a living? Then I tell them I just sank a well in Utah, have the solar power system going in, and am ready to permit a Zook Park model cabin for off grid living by spring of next year….
This entire crisis is not a water quantity issue—Nevada has been using less water with more people for years now. The Colorado River system can sustain itself equitably within its current system of governance if the right leadership is in place. What does this look like? It’s the bobble head that Bob Johnson had in the front office, that—if there were some stakeholders that got the short end of a negotiation—he always would find something in return, maybe funding a study, maybe some other form of compensation. It’s the Minute 319 effort I worked on, which was spurred by cutting off the flow of groundwater across the southerly border by lining the All-American Canal… so we offered this international outreach as some form of compensation for this perceived short-end-of -the-stick.
My doctor read somewhere that the Colorado River stakeholders are like passengers on a bus that is going off a cliff without a driver. My response: yes, and the Federal government was supposed to be behind the wheel with a foot on the brake. Federal “leadership” will take over the system with no state consensus, a state will file suit with the Supreme Court, then it will take 15+ years to settle with a decree just handed down with little or no say on how to operate the system best. In the meantime, what is the plan of operation while it litigates under these hydrologic conditions? It’s called chaos.