Transmission towers at Hoover Dam


several deals have been made to transfer water, sometimes permanently. Moving Forward participants discov-


ered that farm production is thriving with the same or less water consump- tion.


“I think that the intention was to


investigate the largest water use sector which is irrigated agriculture and what we discovered in the evaluation is that in several areas there have been some substantial gains in water use efficiency but that it hasn’t resulted in additional benefit to river,” Cullom said. “Farmers are doing more to increase productivity with the same amount of water.” Te Family Farm Alliance’s paper decried that “agricultural irrigation water has become the default ‘reservoir’ to meet growing municipal, industrial, environmental, recreational and energy sector demands,” and that “we must go beyond these perceived easy answers that focus on paying farmers to fallow their land in order to funnel their irrigation supplies to other competing uses.” Te paper said that temporary fallow-


ing proposals “should be approached in a thoughtful, thorough manner only after urban, energy and environmental users of water demonstrate a better manage- ment of their share of the finite supply and only for temporary shortfalls caused


by droughts or emergency situations.” Jerla acknowledged the pressure farmers and ranchers are feeling pressure to sell their water based on the Basin Study’s findings. “While the members of the ag work-


group recognize they have a large part to play, they wanted to tell the story of how much has been done to increase their productivity with the same or less water use over the last 30 or so years,” she said. Workgroup members from the urban, industrial, agricultural and environmen- tal sectors spent two years examining opportunities for dealing with the im- balance and to improve the health of the river. With such diverse membership, “just getting everybody on the same page took some time,” Trujillo said. Despite the initial ramp-up time, the


workgroups managed to create “a pretty good product that identified some good case studies from the agricultural sector where there have been some win-win type agreements that have been put together,” she said. Authors of the report noted that


“opportunities exist to expand or imple- ment new environmental and recreation- al flow programs” through approaches that are mutually beneficial. “Potential interrelationships exist


between environmental and recreational


flows and hydropower resources; as op- tions to protect or improve ecological and recreational resources are evaluated in any future efforts, the effects on all resources, including hydropower, should be considered,” the report said. Te report highlights existing


programs that could be expanded as well as the need to support and fund conservation, water reuse and agricul- tural programs that feature incentives, technological applications and improved stewardship.


Essential to the effort is making sure


that investments in the agricultural and urban water use sectors results in a system benefit, which requires “some new thinking,” Cullom said. “Te geographic distribution of


investments in conservation is very uneven,” he said. Te Colorado River Research Group,


“a self-directed team of 10 veteran Colorado River scholars” with expertise in water resources management, river science, water law and public policy, be- lieves that nothing less than a complete revamp of the Colorado River water use paradigm will save people from harsh shortages. “In previous eras, promoting water


development and consumption was generally accepted as the route to


Summer 2015 • River Report • Colorado River Project • 7


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